Fire Service's life-saving offer for residents who can't hear a standard smoke alarm

If you are unlikely to hear a standard smoke alarm due to being deaf or through hearing loss Essex County Fire and Rescue Service is offering to fit free sensory smoke alarms.

As part of Deaf Awareness Week ECFRS is reminding everyone that it offers a free home visit to all Essex residents where staff visit your home to give safety advice on how to prevent a fire. 

The team can also fit free smoke alarms including sensory smoke alarms.

Laura Moxley, Safe and Well Officer and on-call firefighter at Weeley Fire Station said: “A sensory device works in conjunction with a slightly different type of smoke alarm that we would fit in your property.

“It radio frequencies a silent message over to the kit, that essentially lives in your bedroom. You would have a vibrating pad underneath your pillow and then a strobe light on your bedside table.

“If your smoke alarm was to detect smoke or fire within the middle of the night, it would still make a normal bleeping sound like a standard smoke alarm does, but it would send that message over to your device in the bedroom, vibrating under your head and flashing next to you and together working to wake you up.”

Multiple linked alarms can be placed throughout your home, so that all alarms activate in the event of one alarm being set off. 

Between April 2022 - March 2023, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service fitted 1,020 sensory smoke alarms.

You can book a free visit for yourself or someone you know by calling 0300 303 0088 or by visiting www.essex-fire.gov.uk/book. 

When booking your visit, a member of the team will ask a series of questions to understand your level of vulnerability to a fire and to see if you need smoke alarms fitted at the property.

The Fire Service recommends you have at least one working smoke alarm on every level of your home and that you test them regularly.