Smoke Alarms – Don’t Stay Home Without Them!

MCFRS has had several significant fires this year, including some in which people died, where there were no working smoke alarms present. 

After many of these fires, MCFRS personnel have gone door to door in the impacted neighborhood offering to check smoke alarms and provide safety information.  During the door to door effort our Firefighters are finding an “alarming” number of non-working smoke alarms.  To ensure the safety of those residents, we immediately install a new smoke alarm and/or battery.   

Please make sure your home has working smoke alarms!  Test yours today!  Your life may depend on it!

Below please find Ten Tips on smoke alarms, from our friends at the US Fire Administration, you will find useful.

Follow these 10 easy tips on smoke alarms:

1. One of the best ways to protect yourself and your family is to have a working smoke alarm that can sound fast for both a fire that has flames, and a smoky fire that has fumes without flames. It is called a "Dual Sensor Smoke Alarm."
2. Place a smoke alarm on the ceiling of every level of your home and both inside and outside bedrooms. Children and older people can sleep though the loud sound of a smoke alarm. Make sure your escape plan includes someone that can help children and others wake up immediately to escape from the home.
3. If you keep your bedroom doors closed, place a smoke alarm on the ceiling of each bedroom.
4. Check smoke alarms monthly by pressing the test button.
5. Never take smoke alarm batteries out to put into other items like games or remote controls.
6. Teach children what the smoke alarm sounds like and what to do when they hear the alarm sound.
7. If there is a fire, leave the home right away by crawling low under the smoke and never go back inside.
8. If smoke from cooking makes the alarm sound, press the "hush" button, if your alarm has one. You can also turn on the kitchen fan, open a window or wave a towel near the alarm until it stops making the sound. Never take the battery out of the alarm.
9. Most alarms need a new battery at least once a year. Some smoke alarms have batteries that last for up to 10 years. If your smoke alarm is over 10 years old, replace it with a new alarm and a new battery.
10. If you rent, talk to your landlord about placing a working smoke alarm in your home. You still need to buy a new battery at least once a year for the alarm.

Can We Find You In An EMERGENCY?

As part of our Summer of Safety program, this week's focus has been on home escape planning. A critical part of that planning is knowing your home address as well as making sure we can SEE your house numbers on your home so we can find you and get help to you quickly! 

In an emergency, police, fire and rescue workers depend on house numbers to find YOU as quickly as possible. Finding your home - especially at night - can be challenging if address numbers are unreadable, hidden, unlighted or have missing numbers and may delay emergency responders from

getting to you as quickly as possible.

Are your house numbers visible from the street? Are they set on a background of contrasting color? If your house is hidden from the street, are your numbers attached to a visible fence, mailbox or gate? Is your mobile home identified with your house number? If you live on a corner, does your house number face the street named in your address?

If you've answered "no" to any of these questions, please follow the guidelines below to make sure your house number is easy to read:

1. Numbers must be visible from the street. Existing residential home numbering can be 3 1/2 inches high, however new residential homes must be at least 5 inches high and if you replace existing numbers they must be at least 5 inches high.
2. Numbers should be placed on a contrasting background, with a reflective coating on the numbers for easy visibility at night.
3. Repair or replace aging address number placards, especially on mailboxes that are a distance from the front of the residence.
4. Prune any bushes, tree limbs or other growth that has covered your house numbers.
5. Numbers should be placed on or beside the front door. If your door is not easily seen from the street, put the numbers on a post, fence or tree at the driveway entrance so they can be clearly seen from the street. In addition to numbers on the front door of your house, if you have a rural-style mailbox, reflective and contrasting numbers should be placed on both sides of the box so they can be seen by an emergency vehicle approaching from either direction.

Montgomery County Code on Addresses

1. The owner of any structure presently existing or constructed in the future must display Arabic numbers designating the address assigned to the structure by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, or by the municipality in which the structure is located. Numbers must be at least five (5) inches high for single-family detached and attached residences and at least six (6) inches high for commercial, industrial or multifamily structures. However, if the numbers designating the address of a single-family residence on April 5, 1988, were at least three (3) inches high, those numbers comply with the size requirement of this section as long as they remain in place. Address displays must be posted on a contrasting background displayed in a conspicuous place that is unobstructed and clearly readable from the street named in the official address of the structure. Where a structure has more than one (1) address or where more than one (1) structure shares a common entry or driveway, numbers must designate the addresses in sequence.
2. An agency of the county must not require a permit for a sign containing only the address of a residence if the sign is smaller than a maximum size set by the county executive by regulation.

Questions About Fireworks

Questions you may have about fireworks.

Q: What fireworks are legal?

A: In Montgomery County, all fireworks are illegal to possess or discharge including gold label sparklers.

Snap-and-pop noise makers, snakes, and party poppers are the only exception to this law.

Q: Can I receive fireworks at my home through the mail?

A: No. Use of the mail for the transportation of fireworks for use in the State of Maryland is illegal.

Q: Can I have a private fireworks display at my residence with proper permits?

A: No. You can’t have a private display; however, you can have a public display with proper permits and insurance.

Q: Can I receive fireworks at my residence delivered by public carrier?

A: No. It doesn't matter where the fireworks are purchased or how they are brought into Maryland. Fireworks are still illegal.

Leave Fireworks To The Professionals

Protect The Ones You Love

Fire Protection Engineers – Helping to Keep Montgomery County Safe!

By: Daniel the Intern

Fire Protection Engineers (FPE’s) do not work in the public very often and their role in fire safety is widely unknown. However, I had the opportunity to spend a few days in their office to learn about their jobs and what they do behind the scenes.

From the USFA web site

There are 3 E's needed for an effective fire prevention program; Education, Engineering, and Enforcement. The MCFRS FPEs, in the Fire Code Enforcement Section, are key players in the second two. The engineering aspect can range anywhere from setting up a fire alarm system to making sure fire hydrants are receiving enough water flow for their potential use in fighting a fire. They will also analyze the plans for new communities to make sure all of the fire codes are met, like having every residential front door at the furthest 100 feet away from a firetruck-accessible road. While this is a form of enforcement, they will also suggest an engineering solution. One way to solve that problem is to install grasspave where there is regular grass in an area large enough for a firetruck to drive on. Grasspave is a hard surface that will allow grass to grow on top but can allow firetrucks to drive on it without getting stuck.

In addition, they spend a lot of time meeting with people who need their help. I was able to sit in during one of these meetings where the owners of a building had a broken fire alarm control panel. The issue was that when it was installed on the outside of the building, the elements took their toll and caused it to malfunction. The FPEs informed them that the fire code specifically called for it to be installed on the inside and somehow they had gotten away with it being installed on the outside.

Finally, most of their enforcing comes when they are actively inspecting buildings. During and after a building is constructed, it has to be inspected to make sure all the codes are met and it will be safe for people to live or work in. For example, the diameter of the pipe bringing water in to the building must be at least a certain size, depending on the stresses it will be subjected to. In addition, there needs to be smoke detectors and sprinklers in every room that is qualified to have them. Unfortunately, almost all of these inspections are done in the morning so I was not able to join them to learn more.

The residents of Montgomery County are lucky to have four Fire Protection Engineers that graduated from the FPE program at the University of Maryland, one of only two in the country.