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Family alerted by smoke alarm escapes house fire in Pinole

PINOLE — A family of three was awakened by a   smoke alarm   and escaped a blaze at their two-story house early Tuesday, a fire official said. The mother, father and young boy were out of the home in the 2500 block of Samuel Street when fire crews arrived at 2:43 a.m., six minutes after being dispatched, Battalion Chief Bryan Craig said. The quick response kept the blaze from destroying the house and also kept nearby homes and eucalyptus trees from catching fire, he said. “The house sits next to a eucalyptus grove on a narrow street,” Craig said. “Eucalyptus is rather flammable, so in that respect, we were very fortunate.” Firefighters   arrived to see flames in the basement, extending into the living room, Craig said. The fire didn’t spread far, and crews put it out in five minutes, quickly enough that the family will be able to move back in once the power is restored. It could take a while. Investigators found that electrical equipment being used to grow marij...
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Popular fire alarms take up to 10 minutes to sound – and may be too slow to save your life

Older types of household fire alarms are taking twice as long to go off in a fire than newer models, a Which? study has found. Tests done by the consumer watchdog have revealed that older-style “Ionisation” fire alarms can take nearly ten minutes to sound after a fire starts. This is around four minutes longer than newer-style “optical” alarms, which take just over five minutes to go off. Despite slow reaction times and in one case failure to go off at all, all alarms tested had been approved by the British Standards Institution which does not set a maximum acceptable time frame for alarm reactions. Neil Wallington, former chief fire officer of Devon   fire Brigade,   described the difference between the waiting times as “potentially the difference between life and death”. He said: “A delay of nearly ten minutes is completely unacceptable because people could die within that time frame. Fire is very unforgiving and smoke is the real killer. When escaping a bur...
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Fire alarm warning

PEOPLE living in Tenbury and the Teme Valley are being warned that if they have a single fire alarm in their home they may be living under a false sense of security. The warning comes from the Hereford and Worcester Fire Service. Fire chiefs say that latest fire statistics reveal that one smoke alarm may not be enough to provide people with the best chance of escaping a fire in the home. Most people know a working smoke alarm can save lives by providing those vital few seconds needed to escape a house fire. But, despite the majority of homes (89 per cent) having at least one working smoke alarm in their home, smoke alarms alerted householders to a fire in England in only a third of cases. The most common reason a smoke alarm failed to activate was because the fire was outside its range. For this reason, the Fire Kills campaign and Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service is encouraging people to have a think about the smoke alarms in their home. "If...
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