When you change your clocks, change your smoke alarm batteries

Remember: Daylight savings is also the time to check your smoke detectors

Last year, around this time, my husband and I had a house fire. It was pretty big, pretty serious. I was seven months pregnant and made it out (along with my husband and two dogs, safely) just as black smoke started pouring into our bedroom and just before the roof leapt into flames.

What undoubtedly saved our lives was a smoke alarm. And so I read Wired’s article on the new Nest smoke alarm with some interest.  The headline reads: Nest Gives the Lowly Smoke Detector a Brain—and a Voice.

Apparently, the device addresses some of the common aesthetic and functional issues with existing smoke detectors. For one thing, it doesn’t screech every time the house fills up with smoke from cooking. According to the article, when smoke is first detected the device speaks to you in a female voice:

“‘There’s smoke in the bedroom,’ she said. She didn’t sound panicky, but you could tell she meant business.”

The article goes on:

“…what sets Nest Protect apart is its vocal warning before things get that bad. This feature has the potential to save lives: Millions of people intentionally disable smoke alarms because they’re fed up when the alert blares at the slightest hint of charred bacon. Nest’s verbal alert gives owners a chance to head off a heart-palpitating klaxon call when none is warranted, making it less likely they’ll rip out the batteries in disgust. And the Nest Protect will never wake you at 3 a.m. to inform you that the battery is low—instead, when the lights go down at bedtime, its gentle ring of light provides a status report. A green glow means all is fine; a yellow circle tells you that it’s time to replace the battery.”

Before my house fire I might have readily bought into Nest’s proposition. As I’ve shared with anyone who’s heard my story, my first thought when my own smoke detector went off that morning was that the batteries were low or the thing was malfunctioning. I was annoyed. I was ready to pull it off the wall. It was 5:45 a.m., dammit!

But here’s the thing, my husband had already been in a fire and he knew differently. He takes the smoke detector seriously every time. We didn’t need a soft warning, we needed to move and he did. I like Nest’s nod to the vast majority of our experiences with smoke alarms — unnecessary screeching when dinner, not the house, is burning. But I’m left wondering — would it have been enough for us?

I applaud Nest. I like where their intentions are. But my advice to you is still the same as it was a year ago after this happened to me:

Get updated smoke detectors, have them wired into your house and take them seriously every time.