The following is an auto-generated transcript of an episode of OFNTSC's Podcast "Ontario First Nations Technically Speaking 'Cast" hosted by Chelsey Johnson.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of having smoke alarms, testing your smoke alarms, and maintaining your smoke alarms. Our guest Nathan Hill also talks about how you and your family can create a home fire escape plan to keep you safe.

00:00 - Chelsey Hello everybody and welcome to OFNTSC's very first podcast episode. My name is Chelsea Johnson and I am from Six Nations of the Grand River. I am the communications officer here at the OFNTSC and I've been here for about the last four and a half years. I am very excited to bring you our first podcast episode with a very special guest, nathan Hill. Nathan has been at the OFNTSC for, I believe, over a decade and he's held many roles, including the Fire and Safety Program. So I'm going to give a bit of a brief overview of the program and then we're going to ask Nate some questions.

00:59
The Fire and Safety Program of the OFNTSC was created in 1995 to address the fire and safety needs and deficiencies that many First Nations public buildings experience. The OFNTSC's Fire and Safety Service works with communities and tribal councils to provide assistance to regional fire prevention officers, building code interpretation and compliance as it relates to fire safety. The OFNTSC has provided important fire safety prevention material for First Nations school children and for the entire communities to use. As with other services offered by the OFNTSC, the fire safety service tailors everything they do to meet local and geographical needs of your community, which includes emergency vehicle specifications improving the efficiency in your community fire department administration and assisting in preparing your community in the event of a fire. So, without further ado, I'm going to welcome Nathan Hill and let him give a brief introduction to himself.

02:05 - Nathan 
Nathan, hey Chels, thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be here today and I'm honored to be the first guest Again. My name is Nathan Hill. I am currently the Infrastructure Supervisor at the OFNTSC. Up until about a month ago, I was the fire safety coordinator for about three years. I am also from six nations of the Grand River Territory and I am happy to be here.

02:30 - Chelsey
Thanks so much, Nathan. And just to give our listeners a bit of a background, we actually kind of decided to do this podcast because we were just sitting at a table one day and we were talking about smoke alarms and throughout the conversation I was like this kind of sounds like a podcast and so when I brought the idea up to Nate that maybe we should just record ourselves talking, he was all for it, because we're both pretty avid podcast listeners. So we're going to give it a go. My first question for you, because you are known as almost the face of OFNTSC on our social media platforms. Your pictures are everywhere every month promoting people to test their smoke alarms. Why is it so important to test our smoke alarms and why are you so passionate about getting that message out every month?

03:25 - Nathan
Yeah, so smoke alarms are obviously something that's very important in a home, in a residence where someone lives. Smoke alarms are important life safety devices that are installed during construction and they would notify you in the event of a fire. Smoke alarms typically would be installed in various locations throughout the home. We can get more into that later, but it's definitely important to test your smoke alarms to make sure that they work, so that you know that they're going to work in the event of an emergency. If they're not going to activate in the event of a fire, then unfortunately they're not really serving much of a purpose. So it's very important to test your smoke alarms at least once a month.

04:13
We've been pretty diligent over the past couple of years of posting reminders the first day of every month to test your smoke alarms. It's simple Reach up, push the button. It would activate the alarm. If they're interconnected they may activate other alarms in the home, but it's very important to follow through with that. To be diligent to do that at least once a month and the first day of every month is kind of an easy enough reminder to keep yourself on track.

04:42 - Chelsey
Yes, for sure. It's very important, and I definitely think about those posts that we have out on social media every month, every time I see my smoke alarm. But, nate, I have to say I'm so sorry. I have tested it, but I don't do it every month. Is there anything you can tell me honestly, because my smoke alarms are pretty high up, I have to get a chair and stand on the chair to test the smoke alarm. Is there a way to make it easier for me to do it every month? Is there some sort of hack that you have? Do you test your smoke alarms every month?

05:18 - Nathan 
I do test my smoke alarms every month. It's easy enough when you take the pictures. I'm diligent that I can. I'm up there. I might as well test it while I'm up there. That's kind of the way the pictures work. They do sell. I don't want to make fun of any vertically challenged people, but they sell. I guess they're sticks basically, so you can reach up and test your smoke alarms. So those do exist and that is their specific purpose, like in my house. I'm fortunate enough that I'm tall enough that I can reach up and test a smoke alarm in a house that typically I would have eight foot ceilings. If they're higher than that, again you're going to need a chair, you're going to need again something like those sticks to specifically test them. But it is important and it is. You know they're obviously life safety, important life safety devices, and it's it's worth a few minutes of your time, at least once a month.

06:13 - Chelsey 
Yeah Well, I just want to make it very clear that I'm not vertically challenged, but I have really high ceilings in my house, so that is the reason why I cannot reach the smoke alarm. So you do the test every month. Is that what you would recommend is once a month to test your smoke alarm?

06:29 - Nathan 
Yeah, that's the standard practice I mean at least for for in I'm thinking of the alarms in my house right now, in the hallway. There's a green light on it. So when I walk by I can see that green light on. That at least tells me that the alarm has power, that it's powered by the electrical system and it's Operational. To test, it is shown that it's fully operational, it's fully working and that it would activate in the event of an emergency. So obviously there is a light on it, an indicator, an LED light showing that it has power.

07:01
But you can, just to make sure that everything's working, make sure that the alarms totally functional, like I said, at least once a month To get up there and test the alarm. The other thing I'd like to add it as far as timelines, obviously we just went through it just not long ago was when you change your clocks you should always change the batteries in the alarms. The alarms, typically, are going to be hardwired, so they're going to be powered by the Electrical system in your in your home, but they're going to have what's called a battery backup, so it's like a 9 volt battery or 2 AA batteries. Those are in the alarm so that the alarm will still function if you lose power, and I know a lot of First Nation communities, I know wait a second.

07:46 - Chelsey 
I'm sorry. I did not realize, like I thought, if you were connected Hardwire to power, that you didn't have a battery and your smoke alarm. Are you saying that every smoke alarm has a battery that needs to be changed when the clocks change?

08:00 - Nathan
most alarms do like a newer type of alarm that they have Within the last couple years, would have a a sealed lithium ion battery inside of it, so there would be no battery to change, but it still has battery backup in the event of a power loss and it would still function. So if it's a typical hardwired alarm, it should have and it's required by code to have a battery backup so that it will function in the event of a power loss again. That's, when you change your clocks it's a good idea to change your batteries.

08:32 - Chelsey 
We just changed our clocks too, so actually this podcast is coming out at the perfect time since the clocks just changed. Go check the battery and change the battery in your smoke alarm in your home. That's honestly. I'm gonna do that because I thought, because mine was hardwired, I didn't have a battery even in there. So I'm even gonna go check to see if I do have a battery and change it. This is really good. My next question for you, nate, is what are some common mistakes people make when it comes to smoke alarms and how can they avoid them?

09:06 - Nathan 
The biggest mistake. I definitely see. I've had the opportunity to visit a lot of First Nation communities and a lot of homes in communities and I'd say the thing that Kind of bothers me the most is when smoke alarms are physically removed by the people who are living there. As far as I understand, they'd normally be removed due to false alarms. So if you're cooking, if it's in the hallway, that, if you have a hot shower and the steam can set the smoke alarm off Like there are false alarms, that can happen. Alarms are manufactured so that they can be Silenced when they're going off. So if there's a false alarm and you know that it's activated due to a false alarm cooking shower, whatever it might be, they can be silenced by, you know, pushing and holding the button.

09:58 - Chelsey
Can I just share a really funny story about a false alarm that happened one time with me. So I had COVID. But the first time I had COVID I Borrowed a humidifier from my brother because I thought it would help me Like clear out my congestion and stuff like that. And I didn't like I had never used a humidifier before and I put it on like the max blast setting and I had left it on for like the whole night and I woke up in like three o'clock in the morning to the alarms. My smoke, like my smoke alarms were like going off and I was like so sick and so out of it and delirious. And I woke up and I opened my eyes and the whole room was like foggy. I didn't know. I literally thought there might have been a fire and then it, and then I took me like a few seconds to realize that it was the humidifier. Like had like literally fogged up my entire house because I don't have a big house, so it was like easy to like fog it all up and I had to like open up all my windows and like and it was like three o'clock in the morning. It was pretty funny, uh, but I did not unplug anything. I just tried to clear it out and I left all my smoke alarms in, so they're working as of at least two years ago, which is great, awesome.

11:19
So I also have another question about carbon monoxide detectors, because I know that some people have them. I'm not even sure if I actually do, but how does that tie into smoke alarms Do? Should you have both? Should you just have one or their combination? Smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detectors? Like what would you suggest? What's the standard?

11:43 - Nathan
So carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide alarms, um, um are devices that would uh detect carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a product of incomplete combustion, usually caused by fuel burning appliances. So it could be if you have a wood stove, a gas, propane, natural gas, forced air furnace, water heater, uh fireplace, something like that, something that had that burns fuel could be a stove, a gas stove, something like that, um, if you have any of those types of appliances, you should be protected with a carbon monoxide alarm. Carbon monoxide alarms can be combination alarms with your smoke alarms, so they it doesn't necessarily look any different than a smoke alarm on your ceiling. It's just that it's designed to detect both uh uh fire and carbon monoxide. The way they identify the either fire or carbon monoxide is different. The pattern in which the the I guess the alarm activates is different. So you think of a typical um smoke alarm. It just beeps and that's. You know everyone, everyone's heard, everyone's heard um.

12:58
In the event of a fire, carbon monoxide alarms typically different. It's usually four beeps and then a pause for beeps and then a pause. It's a different pattern so that you can distinguish between the two in in the event of an emergency. Just to add on that to the, to the patterns. It happens all the time. You'll hear an alarm that chirps. Every 30 seconds You'll hear a chirp, chirp.

13:24
I've listened to podcasts and they have it going on in the background of their point in their house. That's usually a battery. That's either the battery's dead and the smoke alarms letting you know that the battery's dead or the smoke alarm itself needs to be replaced. So there are different patterns. Usually the alarms have that listed on it's on the back or it's on the front of the alarm, telling you what the different noises that the alarm makes, what the noises mean. Basically, for carbon oxide alarms, you can also have, uh, like a plugin alarm so it'll just plug in like the wall, like in an outlet, um, and they're good to have, like you'd have on any story, something like that outside of in the. You know if you have a hallway outside of bedroom, something like that, if you have those fuel burning appliances, it's definitely something that's nice to have.

14:10 - Chelsey 
Just going off of what you mentioned about, uh, looking at the back of the smoke alarm and seeing, um, what it says on there. Recently my boyfriend looked at his and it said that his smoke alarm had actually expired in 2019. We did not know that smoke alarms expired, so could you talk a l14:31 - Nathan ittle bit more about that and what does that mean If your smoke alarm is expired?

Yeah, so you'll get an alarm that um, if it's been installed for, say, 15 years or something, it still functions. But manufacturers can really only um kind of design them to work for a specific amount of time. Typically it's seven to 10 years after the alarm has been installed. So once an alarm is installed and in place on a certain date it's typically seven to 10 years after that date it should be replaced with a new alarm. It's they're not difficult to replace, they're not necessarily expensive. Depends how many you have in your, in your home. But again, it's something to keep your, make sure your family safe, because at some point, just like just like anything else, it's going to fail, and that's not something you want to happen in the event of an emergency. So that's why you would replace it during that kind of lifespan.

15:27 - Chelsey 
Okay, yeah, that makes sense, and I think, uh, that's probably goes into a little bit also of, like the the maintenance of your smoke alarms, right, making sure that you're staying safe by replacing it. If it needs to be replaced after a certain amount of time, the actual unit itself might need to be completely replaced, right? So okay, um, my other question for you is actually I'm wondering if you have any questions or comments or anything else that you would like to hear from the community the difference between the interconnected smoke alarms what's more beneficial? Does it matter if you have to have an interconnected smoke alarm system in your house, or like, is that better?

16:13 - Nathan 
Yeah, I think it's definitely something that would ensure a higher level of safety.

16:19
So an interconnected alarms would basically mean if you have a house that's two stories and a basement, when it was constructed it would have one alarm on each story.

16:33
If it's not necessarily new enough, they may not be installed in bedrooms, or so let's say it's a house that has three alarms, three smoke alarms, one on each story. Interconnected would mean there are physically connected. The wiring is connected between each of the alarms so that if the alarm on the second story goes off, it sounds the other alarms that are on the other two stories, so they all go off at the same time, even though only one of them has detected smoke or fire. So it's very important that they are interconnected. It is required by code. So if you're constructing a new house now, constructing a building now that has smoke alarms, and then now obviously you would see them installed in bedrooms, different locations outside of bedrooms on each story, so you could have a house that has six, seven, eight alarms pretty easily, where maybe a few years ago, 10 or more years ago, it may not be so much. So the level of safety has definitely increased significantly.

17:38 - Chelsey
So as long as you have a smoke alarm on each level, though, is that kind of what the standard minimum is? Requirement is?

17:48 - Nathan 
It definitely used to be. So now if you have, say, a two bedroom house, I'd say a three bedroom house, one story with a basement and no bedrooms in the basement, typically you'd have one on each story, so one on the main story, one in the basement and you'd have three bedrooms. You'd have one in each of the bedrooms as well, so that house might have five alarms even though it's only two stories, depending on the configuration of the bedrooms. If you have two bedrooms on one end of the house, another bedroom on the other end of the house and there's a distance between the two, the code requires smoke alarms to be installed basically in like a hallway outside of bedrooms. So you'd be in a scenario where you might require two smoke alarms on the main story, one in each of the bedrooms and one in the basement, so it might have six. So it just depends on the configuration of the house, but generally they'd be inside bedrooms in each story. That's kind of the standard for today in Ontario.

18:51 - Chelsey 
Okay. So let's say I have my smoke alarms in the bedrooms in each story and I'm all set. I test my smoke alarms once a month and one day in the middle of the night they go off. What steps would you recommend, or is there anything that you can tell our listeners about the actions that they should take once the smoke alarm is actually triggered?

19:18 - Nathan 
Yeah, so that's a good question. Obviously, you have to know how to react in the event of the alarms actually activating. So it's important to have a home escape plan, whether, if you live alone, if you live with a partner, if you have children, whatever it might be, you have other family that lives with you. You all have to be aware of the home escape plan, you all have to be prepared and you all have to know what to do in the event of an emergency. So, typically, what that home escape plan would consist of is a floor plan of the home, whether it's one story, whether it's multiple stories, a floor plan of each of those stories, with a primary exit out of each of the rooms and a secondary exit out of each of the rooms. So if it's bedrooms, the primary exit would be generally outside the bedroom, down the hallway, outside the door. If you have another door, maybe that's the secondary exit. Secondary exit might be out a window, something like that, just to be prepared. Obviously, making sure windows are clear, making sure windows are openable, operable, large enough that an individual can escape in the event of an emergency Very important for like basements or things of that nature and then a meeting place. So obviously, once you escape from the home, get outside, have a meeting place close by so that you can everyone's accounted for, and once you're outside the home you can call 911 or your local emergency number. But you're definitely gonna do it once you're safely outside the home.

21:01
Another thing I wanted to add with Smoke Alarm specifically it's something that's in the code now is a visual signaling component. So a smoke alarm. It doesn't look necessarily all that different, but it's going to have basically a light on it. People would call it a strobe, something like that, but it's referred to as a visual signaling component. So what it is is, if you're in bed asleep, it's not only going to sound audibly, so the voice or the alarm activating, it's also going to activate the visual signaling component and it's very bright and it's intended to wake somebody up who may not wake up with just the audio signaling alarm.

21:48
If somebody's hard at hearing, they're hard at hearing, they have something like that. It's intended to wake somebody like that up so that they can also react in the event of an emergency. So that's something that's minimum code now. So it's something you would see in new construction. Not necessarily something you might see 10 years ago. If your place was built 10 years ago, something like that maybe not something you would see, but definitely something you'd see today.

22:16 - Chelsey 
That's good to know, definitely good to know. And how can listeners involve their families in fire safety discussions and drills? I'm also wondering how often we should be having these discussions with our family to make sure that we are all aware of the plan. What would you recommend in terms of how families can come together to have these discussions?

22:41 - Nathan 
I think, involving if you have a family, you have children, you have other family members that are living with you. I think something that's safe is, obviously you have to test the alarms. You can involve them in that process. You can say hey, you want to help me test the smoke alarm in the basement, you want to help me test the smoke alarm upstairs, something like that. Get some involved. Get them aware of what it is and why it's there and what it sounds like.

23:08
If the first time somebody's hearing it is in the event of an emergency, they're not likely to react well than if they are, compared to if they were prepared. And then, obviously, with the escape plan, it's generally safe If you, twice a year, if you're changing your batteries in your alarm, include practicing that escape plan as part of the same day. So you're going to change the batteries in the alarms and you're going to practice that escape plan with your family. Obviously you've got to make it a priority. You've got to make sure everyone's there. If you have elderly, if you have somebody with disabilities, you have to make sure that they're included as part of that plan and that there is a plan to get them out of the house as well.

23:58 - Chelsey
I also want to share a tip that I learned from you, nate, because I feel like I've learned a lot after working with Nate for the last four and a half years. But when you change the battery, you don't have to throw that battery away. You can use that in a child's toy or remote control or something, because that battery might still be have, you know, power left, but it's just not good to have it in the smoke alarm anymore. Is that right?

24:25 - Nathan
Yeah, 100%. So if you're replacing the batteries, it's not necessarily that the battery you're taking out of the smoke alarm is. If you wait for that battery to die 100%, then it's too late, it's not serving its purpose. So that's why you're replacing it every time you change your clocks, and then you can use that battery for toys, you can use it in the remote, you can use it in all sorts of things, and then if the remote stops working because the battery dies and that's different than if the battery and the smoke alarm stops working you know, obviously they're two pretty different things.

25:03
The other thing to consider about batteries is it's generally not recommended to include rechargeable batteries in smoke alarms. As far as I understand, the way rechargeable batteries work is that the smoke alarm won't notify you when the battery dies in the same way that it would with, like, a non rechargeable battery. So obviously you'll have rechargeable batteries in remotes and toys and whatever. What have you then? Really, you're going to not install those same types of batteries in smoke alarms. They may not function quite the same way.

25:37 - Chelsey 
Great. I've certainly learned a lot more than I knew before about smoke alarms today. In our conversation, nate, and before we close out, I just wanted to give you the opportunity to add anything else you'd like to add. If there's anything else you want our listeners to know about smoke alarms and being fire safe, please let us know.

26:01 - Nathan 
Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing anybody could do after listening to this is just go test your smoke alarms. Maybe you haven't done it recently, maybe you haven't done it in a while. Please take this opportunity to go test your smoke alarms. Ensure that you have smoke alarms, ensure that they are working. Check the date on them, make sure that they're not more than 10 years old. If they have to be replaced, talk to your landlord, talk to your housing department, talk to if you need replacement alarms. There are some resources available out there to make sure that you and your family are protected. But definitely test your smoke alarms.

26:39 - Chelsey 
Awesome. Thanks so much for joining us today, Nate, and being the first guest on the first OFNTSC podcast ever. That pretty much wraps up our first podcast. If you have any questions, please do let us know. You can send us an email to communications at OFNTSCorg and you can try to get Nate to answer your questions in a future podcast episode. And definitely feel free to follow us across our social media platforms at OFNTSC and we will be back with another episode very soon. Thanks for listening and bye for now.