A few years ago, I lived in a condo. IN the middle of the night, the unit next door caught fire--faulty fireplace. I awakened to the sound of fire trucks outside my bedroom window. I turned on the light and saw smoke wafting across my ceiling. I grabbed the dogs, my wallet and keys and headed downstairs. WHen I looked back up, I could not see the top of the stairs for the smoke. Coldest day of the year, of course. The smoke alarm right outside my bedroom did not sound.
After the fie in the next unit was extinguished, the fire captain and I went back to my unit to assess the damage. First they needed to place exhaust fans at the front and rear to remove the heavy smoke. We realized quickly that there was no actual fire damage just tons of smoke damage. We went up the stairs and he pushed the test button on the smoke detector and it beeped. I asked him why then did it not go off when the condo was filling with smoke.
He then proceeded to tell me that pushing the test button on the smoke detector does nothing more than let you know that the battery is working, it does not confirm that the unti will detect smoke. The sensors get old, they get dirty and dusty, and sometimes just stop working. Therefore, you must test your smoke detector with SMOKE--a cigarette, a candle, or the can of smoke you can pruchae at a hardware store.
Remember, pushing that little test button and receiving the beep tells you only that the battery is working. I tell buyers that at inspections all the time since only about half of the inspectors do, until I remind them. A good inspector has the can of smoke to test the smoke alarm. The fire inspector said that had I not heard the fire engines, I would have likely died of smoke inhilation.
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