Press Release: Fire Alarms

Several times a day, the Wilton Fire Department responds to residential automatic alarms in town.

Often fire alarms are set off by burnt food on the stove, a smoky fireplace, steam from the shower, etc. Other times the alarm is set off by less mundane factors.

As recently as a week ago, the Wilton Fire Department responded to an automatic alarm on East Meadow Rd. The residents awoke from bed to the sound of their fire alarm going off. Their car was on fire in the garage on the lower level of their home. The fire department responded to the alarm immediately and had the fire out within minutes. The car was destroyed but the garage and the rest of the house sustained little damage.

It is frightening to consider what the consequences may have been if there were no fire alarm in this home. If the fire department was not notified immediately, if the residents did not wake to an alarm, the outcome may have been much different. The facts are, more than 4,000 people die in the United States each year from fires, 82 percent of these deaths result from fires in the home. If you don’t have a monitored fire alarm system, consider having one installed. At a bare minimum, smoke alarms should be placed on each level of the home. Having a working smoke alarm reduces the chances of dying in a fire by nearly one half. Test your smoke detectors monthly. Make sure they work!