Not all Windsor Regency residents heard the fire alarms when a fire broke out Easter Sunday. What should you do to protect your family?
By:Michael Arges
EAST WINDSOR — When a fire broke out in unit 45-14 of the Windsor Regency Condominiums Easter Sunday, some nearby residents say they didn’t know any danger existed until firefighters arrived.
Firefighters say the alarm was sounding when they arrived at the fire, but because the alarms are located in the building’s halls and entryways, some residents may not have heard it.
The fire caused extensive damage to several units in the development before it was extinguished by fire fighters put it out, and fortunately, there were no injuries.
According to Stanley G. Rodefeld, the East Windsor Township official in charge of inspections and code enforcement, all of the condominiums and apartments in the township are covered by the fire alarm retrofit requirements of the Uniform Fire Code. The units in East Windsor were built at a time when code requirements were less stringent, but the retrofit requirements have since mandated an upgrading of those standards, so that “hard-wired” interconnected fire alarms — alarms that will sound when any of them detect smoke — were required first in the common areas and then in the stairwells and basements of such apartment and condominium units.
The requirements still allow for battery-operated alarms within the apartment or condominium unit itself. This means that a fire elsewhere in the building would not sound the alarm within a given apartment even if the batteries in the apartment’s alarms were still good.
The distinction between hard-wired and battery-operated alarm systems points up the importance of proper upkeep of the battery-powered alarms within individual condominiums and apartments, according to East Windsor Fire Official Kevin W. Brink. He says that he battery-powered alarms are a good system “as long as you keep fresh batteries” in them.
Although the fire code mandates changing the batteries yearly, Mr. Brink says that his office actually recommends changing the batteries twice a year. He endorses the “change your clock, change your batteries” slogan that suggests residents change the batteries in their smoke alarms at the same time they change clocks at the beginning and end of daylight-saving time.
Mr. Brink said he often finds residents have disconnected the batteries from their alarms or forgotten to replace defective batteries, noting “we find this all the time” investigating residential fires.
Mr. Brink also said manufacturers’ recommendations that residents change the entire alarm unit every 10 years. This makes sense, Mr. Brink says, because “electronics are always changing” and improving, and today’s smoke alarms are likely to be significantly more effective than those sold a decade ago.
Mr. Brink notes that current housing codes mandate both hard-wired alarms and battery-powered backup alarms within all newly-constructed individual condominium units and houses. However, he feels that the less stringent fire code retrofit requirement is appropriate, because it “tries to bring it up to a stiffer code,” without requiring owners to incur the often heavy expense of bringing a older dwelling up to the standards of new construction.