Safety From Fire and Gas Leaks

Window bars may be great deterrents for burglars, but you might also want to consider fire safety when getting your home window bars. There was an event ten years ago wherein a fire in East Palo Alto killed nine people because the window bars made it difficult for the firemen to get into the dwelling and safe the victims.

How window bars can be a threat to your own safety...

Smoke detectors are a great help when it comes to protection against fire and its hazards. Having them in your house or apartment will help you feel more secure and relaxed. You should have at least one on each level of your house.

Test the smoke detectors once a month and make sure to check the batteries. Replace the batteries twice a year. Get rid of detectors that are more than 10 years old. Chances are they won't work as well as they should.

Don't forget to install a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide alarm at 10 feet from a boiler or water heater.

Your family, and especially your children should be well aware of the alarm and what to do when it goes off. When testing the alarm, see to it that everyone can hear it from their bedrooms clearly.

Make a fire escape plan with your family. Plot at lest two routes out of each room and plan on a meeting place where everyone will gather afterwards. It would also help if you and your family could practice doing the escape so that every detail can be worked on and everyone will know exactly what to do. (See PEARL Escape Ladder}

When the alarm sounds, don't think twice about getting out of the house as soon as possible. Leave your belongings behind and contact the fire department as soon as possible. Just make sure you're out of the house.

When a fire breaks out, it's better to crawl and not walk from the house. This is because smoke and heat rise and you would only get in the heat of things when you stand up. When you're in bed, roll over from the bed and crawl on the floor. Before you open the door to get out, feel the knob with the back of your hand to see if it's hot or not.

If you can't leave the room, continue to stay low while waiting for help. Urge the children to call out so that the firefighters will know where to go directly to help them.

And in every step of the way, remember not to panic and keep a clear head.

One type of gas that we have to watch out for is natural gas. We can be safe outside on the city streets because the city has sensors which can monitor any high concentrations of different gases. But do not forget that natural gas can also be found in our own homes when we cook our food and heat our homes.

Natural gas isn't basically dangerous. It is only because it has methane that it has become a great concern. Methane is extremely flammable, and a natural gas leak can start a fire or create a big explosion. What is more disconcerting is that this chemical, and I have to mention carbon monoxide, too, has no smell and we can neither see it nor taste it.

That is why many companies put in a substance called mercapton to give natural gas a smell like that of a rotten egg so we can detect it more easily.

You will also be able to detect if there is a natural gas leak in your home by checking if there are streaks of carbon or soot on your gas appliances. Check if there is no draft in your chimney, too. Other signs to look for is if you see a lot of rust on your flue pipes, or if there is moisture on the windows or walls where your furnace is located, or if there is a rust on your exterior vent pipes.

Be wary of carbon monoxide, too. Carbon monoxide has been known to be a deadly invisible killer. Once this gas enters your bloodstream, your red blood cells will absorb them faster than they absorb oxygen, and eventually it will replace the oxygen in your blood. This will prevent oxygen from getting into your body, and you will suffocate and maybe even die.

Of course, the best way to protect yourself and your family from carbon monoxide poisoning is to install a carbon monoxide detector in your home. It will give you time to make an escape without any harm.

Another gas worth mentioning is radon, which is a radioactive gas that can cause cancer. It is also odorless, tasteless, and invisible. The only way you can check if there's radon in your house would be through an easy and inexpensive test. There are lots of radon test kits being sold. But if you would like to be sure, you can hire a tester to test your house for you.

Mercaptan is a harmless non-toxic chemical added to natural gas to make it easier to detect. Natural gas is originally colorless and odorless. Mercaptan, on the other hand, smells like that of rotten eggs. It only takes a small amount of mercaptan to give natural gas a distinctive smell.

Adding mercaptan to natural gas is essential. If no mercaptan is added, then it would be hard for us to detect if an unlit natural gas was coming from the stove after leaving the valve turned on. It would be hard to detect if there are leaks from the furnaces or heaters.

Forms of this chemical can be found in things that smell - rotten eggs, garlic, skunks, and bad breath, for example. The smell is actually caused by the sulfur in the mercaptan. But it is less corrosive and less toxic than other similar compounds. This makes it very useful for industries into jet fuel, pharmaceuticals, and chemical plants.

Natural gas is one of the most widely used sources of energy, especially in our own homes. It's used for heating, cooking, for generating electrical energy, and other things. It's now wonder why natural gas concentrations have risen very fast. While natural gas is basically harmless, levels at 4.4% to 15% can cause explosions.

Last 2005, PerkinElmer Optoelectronics, the leading supplier of integrated solutions of biomedical and industrial applications, introduced the PerkinElmer IR Natural Gas Sensor PYM 151 for home and industrial alarm systems. It uses infrared (IR) absorption technology to sense levels of natural gas concentrations in your place or area.

Additional Information can be found in PerkinElmer Inc.'s website at www.perkinelmer.com