Family Saved by Smoke Alarms

Fire and Emergency New Zealand - Lower Hutt

Last week a family in Taita were saved by working smoke alarms.

At around 2am on a Sunday morning, an occupant of the two storey house was in the lounge watching TV when he noticed a fire in the kitchen. “I was only out of the room for a few minutes” he said later.

At about the same time as he noticed the fire, the smoke alarms fitted in the house began sounding. The occupant’s first thought was for his family, so he quickly headed for the stairs to get them out. They had already been woken by the smoke alarms and were making their way out of the house when they all met on the stairs, and then escaped without injury.

Had smoke alarms not been fitted in this house, there is every chance that fatalities would have occurred.

The first FENZ firefighting crew arrived within five minutes of the 111 call being made, and already the entire ground floor area of the house was fully involved in fire. In just over ten minutes, the whole house was gutted. As one of the occupants mentioned “it was only a couple of minutes and it was all fire”.

This family did just about everything right when confronted with fire in their home. Their landlord had previously fitted smoke alarms, and the family reacted immediately when those alarms began sounding.

So remember…

Smoke Alarms Save Lives

And if the worst should happen in your home…

Get out and stay out
In a fire, get everybody out and call 111.
And whatever you do, stay out.