Fire safety

If you have a fire in your home, you should always evacuate to a safe meeting point and call the Fire Brigade on '000'. Once you have evacuated you should never go back into a burning property.

Everyone in your household needs to know how to get out of your home quickly. Planning and practising a home fire escape plan will help them do this.

If you require assistance your local housing office has:

• A Fire Safety booklet outlining the steps you should take to help prevent fires from starting in your home
• A Home Fire Escape Plan information sheet that will assist your household in planning an evacuation in the event of a fire

Your smoke alarm

All Office of Housing properties are fitted with a smoke alarm. They are an early warning system that saves lives by waking sleeping people and alerting them to the dangers of fire and smoke.

Only a working smoke alarm can save lives, so make sure your smoke alarm is working properly.

The fire brigade recommends that you test your alarm every week by pushing the test button. The test button should beep when pushed. If your alarm does not beep when tested, contact your local housing office straight away.

Clean dust, cobwebs or grease from your smoke alarm once a month by dusting or lightly vacuuming the cover.

If you believe there are problems with your smoke alarm, such as not responding to testing or making a continuous chirping noise, contact the Housing Call Centre, telephone 131172, immediately.

It is important that you never tamper with your smoke alarm and never disconnect or move it in any way.

Your Office of Housing property is installed with a hard-wired smoke alarm. Hard-wired means it is attached to the mains power of your home and operates directly from that power source.

In the event of an electrical black out your smoke alarm will still function because it is equipped with a back-up lithium battery. The battery is a permanent fixture of the smoke alarm and cannot be removed or replaced and is self-charging from the power source.

If you believe your hard-wired smoke alarm has a replaceable 9 volt battery, report it to the Housing Call Centre immediately and it will be replaced with a lithium model.

Smoke Alarms for the Hearing Impaired

If you require a visual alert to be connected to a smoke alarm to assist people with a hearing impairment please contact your local housing office.