Make Sure to Check Your Smoke Detectors, Cortland County Fire Chiefs Join X101 to Spread Awareness

Jack Eves: [00:00:00] X 101 Always classic Jack here in the studio and joining me today in the studio is Chief of the City of Cortland Fire Department, Wayne Friedman, Homer Fire Chief Jay Riley and Cortlandville Fire Chief Mike Biviano. Guys, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, Jack.

Jay Riley: Happy Halloween Eve. Yes, and thanks for having

Jack Eves: Yes, of course. You know, this weekend, the clocks or turning back an hour, and that’s always a good time to check your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. Right guys.

Mike Biviano: It absolutely is. I mean, and we’ve all, for a long time always associated the. Moving to the clocks, smoke detectors, batteries, at least checking your smoke detectors now, to make sure they’re functioning.

And, a lot of the smoke detectors now have 10 year batteries that are not replaceable, but should always, you know, we recommend every month checking your smoke detectors. But this should be a, a, the reminder, like a friendly reminder. It’s something that’s all your calendar twice to make sure they’re working right.

Jack Eves: That that’s important. Yes. And you see that because it’s also important, you know, just besides having a [00:01:00] smoke detector, also a carbon monoxide alarm. ’cause you know that is a silent killer. A lot of people say,

Wayne Friedman: right? And they recommend you want carbon monoxide detectors on every habitable floor. And they’ve done the new research, so we get asked the question a lot, well, where do they go?

Early on, when carbon monoxide detectors first came out, they said you always wanted ’em low to the ground. ’cause carbon monoxide’s heavier than air, which. Has proven that’s not the case now, it actually is about the same weight of air, so it, it moves freely. They do make the combination smoke co detectors, so put ’em on the ceiling on the side of the wall, wherever your smoke detector is.

It’s, acceptable to put your carbon monoxide detectors there as well.

Jack Eves: And you know, when placing those, obviously you want ’em in the hallways in front of your bedrooms. You know, sometimes the smoke detector might not be the brightest item or putting it in your kitchen, but right outside your kitchen’s probably another safe space for it too.

Right.

Jay Riley: Well, that is absolutely correct. They also have the combination detectors. As Chief Friedman alluded to that, we try to push people towards more that 10 year battery’s huge. They could pretty much set it and just check it at least twice a year. And just make sure that, they’re functioning.

Just because it says 10 years [00:02:00] doesn’t always mean that they’re gonna last that long, so that’s why it’s imperative for them to check at least twice a year and, clock setback and move forward’s. A great reminder.

Jack Eves: Yes. And you know what’s good with some of the smoke detectors too, is I actually have that expiration date.

They recommend replacing it on the backside. Some of them are batteries, but some of them can even be plugged right into, your ceiling and power.

Mike Biviano: Yeah. And, and like Chief Riley speaks of, you know, just because there’s an expiration date, you know, they may malfunction ahead of time. You know, and you just can’t leave them.

So it’s good to check things and like we said, you know, twice a year,

Jack Eves: it’s a good reminder to do that, you know? And you always see too, in the stores, there’s a whole variety of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Is there really a specific version or brand that you guys would recommend?

Wayne Friedman: They all have to go into the same listings, the same testing.

So anything you can pick up at, you know, Lowe’s, Walmart, home Depots, any of your stores is good. They all gotta meet the same standard, so. There’s no real difference. It’s, it’s just a name. They’re all gonna perform the same tasks.

Jack Eves: [00:03:00] And, you know, I’ve also noticed too with especially with carbon monoxides, they actually have a wall plugin detectors.

Is that something that, you know, chief Viviana, you mentioned, you know, carbon monoxide, it’s no longer proven to be heavier than air. It’s probably more recommended to have it placed in your ceiling area than just on the lower part of your wall, right?

Wayne Friedman: Yes and no. I mean. They’re gonna work no matter where you get ’em.

Like I said, it floats with air. So if. You know, you’re walking down the hallway, you know, the air movement, the molecules and stuff, and the air are gonna move. It’s gonna work generally, no matter where you put it. You know the detectors they read, they read the air, they read the sensors. So whether it’s plugged in at the floor, you haven’t mounted on the side of the wall, you mount it on the ceiling, it’s, it’s gonna work.

It’s gonna. Pick up any of the, the hazardous CO that’s in the air as long as you have them. Okay. That’s gonna be the, the biggest push.

Mike Biviano: Yeah. As the chief speaks to the location on, you know, every floor. I mean, it’s imperative truly to have them near those sources that produce carbon monoxide, obviously your furnace, okay.

[00:04:00] Hot water heater in the basement and stuff like that. If there is a problem and you have a carbon monoxide, you know, in that immediate area, it’s gonna detect it. Quicker than if it was on the only, on the first or second floor. So, you, you want to have it near those, sources, for the quickest response because it’s odorless, colorless, tasteless and, you know, unfortunately can have a very, significant effect on somebody, you know, if carbon monoxide through their home and they may not know it.

And, they can get very sick or unfortunately die, due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Jack Eves: Right? And as, and adding on top of what you said, you know, the response, you know, getting alerted, you know, if your smoke detectors going off, you know, that really reduces the risk of, in-home deaths from structure fires and all that.

And I know you’ve guys have seen that too, where a house has working smoke detectors, you know, or alerts the occupants inside alert and then they can alert you guys to respond to it when compared to a home that does not have any working. Or even installed smoke detectors

Jay Riley: along with the component of the smoke [00:05:00] detectors.

We also are making a big push for the residents to shut their door while they’re sleeping. We see a big, okay. It stops fire spread When the door is shut, it buys the person time. Nowadays, the fires are burning hotter and faster given the building, construction and the types of materials that we’re putting inside.

So any little things that we can do as far as shutting the front or shutting the, the bedroom door. My wife’s horrible at it. She likes to leave the door open. And I have to yell her every time, but we shut the door at our home just because I have to reminder her, Hey, this is for their safety as well. So working smoke detectors is along with, with shutting those bedroom doors when you sleep.

Those just provide huge, time for everybody to be able to get out and be notified safely. It’s

Jack Eves: really important and good. Add-on to that too, with closing the doors and, you know, residents who may have questions, they can always contact their local department too, right?

Mike Biviano: Yeah, absolutely. They can give, give us a call, you know, and we can fill ’em in.

We can help ’em if they want some in installations, we can help with that. Or if there’s just a question, you know, we to clear it up. We’d much rather be proactive in that and answer a question and instead of having a [00:06:00] detector that didn’t work properly, wasn’t installed properly, and, and one of the biggest things is.

Making that contact. If they have a detector that goes off and they don’t, they don’t believe it’s a serious situation, they need to call us, because we have the mechanisms to check, for carbon monoxide. And it may be a faulty detector, it may be nothing but if, if your detector goes off. And there’s any question, do you need to contact us?

And we can, we can come and verify it’s nothing and it’s a faulty detector, which we like to do. Mm-hmm. Or hey, if there’s a problem, now we do it and we can help. And, you know, you’ll know about it and you can take the corrective

Jack Eves: actions. That’s a great thing too. You guys offer, again, clocks are falling back this Sunday at two in the morning.

Also a good time to check your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. And any questions, just feel free to give your local fire department a call. Guys, thank you so much for taking time outta your busy schedules to come on in. Okay, Jack. Thank you.

Wayne Friedman: Yes, thanks for having us, Jack. And I guess everybody have a safe Halloween.

It’s always a pleasure.

Jack Eves: For X 1 0 1, I’m Jack Eaves.