Jackson Holtz’s timely article in Monday’s paper on the importance of smoke alarms was read with interest, but unfortunately he failed to deal with a crucial omission in some smoke alarms: no “hush” buttons. This has been a peeve of mine that I’ve ranted about for years to anyone that would listen. Please indulge me.
All too often we read or hear of devastating home and apartment fires where there were smoke alarms that failed to work because the batteries were disconnected or missing. Why? It’s revealed in the next to last paragraph: “Too often, people will disable smoke alarms after kitchen smoke sets them off.” And actually, who wouldn’t do that? You burn something on the stove and the durn smoke alarm goes off, and the only way you can shut the pesky thing up is to disconnect the battery. After you clear away the smoke and air out the place, the smoke alarm, long forgotten, stays disconnected. Then 17 days later, at 4:30 a.m., an overloaded extension cord overheats and … we know the rest of the sad story, don’t we?
It is my firm belief that all smoke alarms should have hush buttons. It should be illegal to sell or dispense those that lack this life-saving feature. I’m surprised that Underwriters Laboratories even approves them. I would never buy one, nor accept a freebee. Of course, I’m sure the fire departments, supplying free smoke alarms through the state program, are supplying units with hush buttons, right?
John Stearman
Everett
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