Back HomeProtect Your Home and Your Family
December 21st, 2010 by keithandkinseyIn memory of our friend Cody Olson, who died a year ago today in a fire at the Silver Dollar Saloon in Blanchardville, we’d like to give everyone a reminder about smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
On August 15th the a new smoke alarm ordinance went into effect for the City of Madison. Some people see this new stricter law as an annoyance. However, if it saves one life it’s well worth it. This requirement will help provide earlier detection allowing people to safely escape a fire. It can also help minimize the size of a fire, reducing the amount of property damage. This ordinance requires tamper resistant smoke detectors with 10 year lithium batteries, unless they are hard wired. Smoke detectors are required in the following locations:
- each bedroom
- outside of each bedroom within 6’ of the door
- on each level of the property
There is also a new carbon monoxide detector law that will go into affect February 1 2011 for the state of Wisconsin. Carbon monoxide is an odorless gas that can be deadly in a matter of a few minutes in high concentrations. The new law will require a carbon monoxide detector in the following locations:
- within 15’ of each bedroom
- on each level of the property
- within 75’ of all fuel burning devices
Earlier this year we added several smoke detectors to each of our rental properties to comply with this new requirement and recently we purchase the carbon monoxide detectors. Here’s an idea of what the detectors cost:
- Carbon monoxide (battery operated): $25
- Smoke (with 10 year battery): $15
- Combination smoke/carbon monoxide (battery operated): $32
- Combination smoke/carbon monoxide (hard wired): $40
This is a relatively inexpensive thing to take care of if you are upgrading just one property. For us, the cost became a little more significant to upgrade several properties. It’s well worth it for the safety of our tenants though. We hope that everyone who reads this takes the time to check their detectors and make the necessary upgrades. We never again want to receiver a phone call like we did one year ago today.
Cody, Dan, Jill, and Brian you have been, and will continue to be missed.
I had to return a few combination smoke/co2 detectors to the local home improvement store because I realized the smoke detector portion was not code compliant. To my surprise, when I went back to find the appropriate detector that is compliant, I discovered that 80% of the smoke detectors they sale are not to code. So, be careful what you are buying. Any battery operated smoke detector should have a 10 year battery that is tamper resistant.