Smoke Alarms no use if you can’t hear them
Smoke Alarms no use if you can’t hear them
Auckland, April 5 – Smoke alarms are essential for saving lives in the home, but they’re no use if you can’t hear them.
NFD Chief Executive Louise Carroll called on the government to come up with innovative ways to help people with hearing disabilities afford alarm systems that would alert them when they’re activated.
“The Fire Service is quite rightly calling for people to get smoke alarms fitted in their homes, but they are no help if you can’t hear them,” Mrs Carroll said.
“People who
are Deaf cannot hear the alarms, and nor can many Hearing
Impaired people who take their hearing aids out when they go
to bed. And that includes people staying in hotels and
motels, as well as people in their own homes.
“Getting
an alarm that links with the lights or to a vibrating pad
that goes under a pillow is expensive, and we need to look
at how we can make these more affordable.”
Mrs Carroll
said governments overseas were moving to deal with the
issue, and it was time for the New Zealand government to do
the same.
She said several Australian state governments
provided a subsidy to the Hearing Impaired and Deaf which
brought the cost of suitable smoke alarms back to the same
price as standard alarms, while in Texas, landlords were now
required by law to provide suitable smoke detectors if
requested by their Hearing Impaired tenants.
“In Britain
one million people can’t hear ordinary smoke alarms, and
in New Zealand probably tens of thousands of us are in the
same position,” she said.
“The government will argue
its budget is blowing out and it can’t afford to
subsidize, but let’s be innovative and find other ways of
achieving this – perhaps tax rebates, or even a special
promotion with the NZ Fire Service or service clubs where
these units can be bought with bulk discounts.
“Life is
precious, the means to save lives through smoke alarms is
there, and with the huge number of New Zealanders who are
Hearing Impaired or Deaf and need visual alarms, it makes
sense to look outside the box to find a
solution.”
ENDS