Think Safety First!

This little public service announcement is being brought to you by our local fire department and Lifetone Technology.   We all know how important smoke detectors are and how they save lives every single day, right?  But, have you ever thought -- what about people who are deaf or who have a hearing loss?  What if they can't hear their smoke alarm??  

I recently found out that our local fire department received a grant to provide special special smoke alarms for individuals with hearing impairments, including families with children with a hearing loss. Miss M has a hearing impairment and qualified for the smoke alarm.  Some of our finest firefighters came by this morning and installed it.  Whoa -- it's pretty amazing!  It's called a Lifetone HL Fire Alarm and Clock, a fire detection system from Lifetone  Technology.

Basically, it works like this.  In case of fire or smoke, a special smoke alarm installed outside her bedroom goes off and triggers a fire-clock alarm on her bedside table that looks like a clock radio,  It works like so (borrowed from their website): 

• Sounds a 520 Hz square-wave alarm: This special sound proven in controlled scientific testing as the most effective at waking people up in a fire emergency. The Lifetone HL pumps out the alarm signal at 90 dBA – that’s like having someone start a lawn mower next to your bed!

• A visual signal: The back-lit display flashes with the word FIRE. In a darkened room, the flashing display is another form of sensory stimulation to “break through” the fogginess of sleep.

• A physical vibration from the bed shaker: A small clam shell-like device about the size of the palm of your hand plugs in to the back of the unit. When the alarm is triggered, the bed shaker, placed between the mattress and box springs, vibrates strongly.

• A voice sounds saying:  "FIRE, GET OUT". 

If you didn't check and change your batteries when the time changed recently, please check the batteries in your smoke detector --

be safe!!