Life Alert Sounds The Alarm
It's Aunt Helen's 80th birthday and you're going to buy her a candle of her favorite
scent; your mother complains of how cold she is and you figure a space heater would be a great gift to give for Mother's day; Grandpa has a hard time sleeping due to freezing digits so you surprise him with an electric blanket. These are thoughtful gifts, however, they are gifts with the potential to harm.
Mental capacities tend to weaken as the body ages, seniors forget to blow out candles or turn off heaters thus leaving them vulnerable towards an unexpected fire. Add immobility due to medication, arthritis, or any other aliment and you have a recipe for disaster.
According to the article, Fire and the Older Adult, released by the U.S. Fire Administration:
The predominate cause of fires in which an older adult was killed are smoking, open flame, heating, and suspicious acts. Cooking, open flames, smoking and heating caused more fires that resulted in injuries among the elderly than other fire causes.
The article goes on to say that more than 1000 Americans aged 65 years and older die each year in home fires and more that 2000 are injured. Moreover, the elderly are 2.5 times more likely to die in a residential fire than the rest of the population.
Most venerable people are home alone during the day having to take care of themselves, which means, opening a can of soup and heating it up for lunch. This sounds innocent enough but not when the elder is having a "senior moment" and forgetting there's a pot of soup on the stove. Many of us have at one time or another set the stove on too high or kept food cooking too long. But when this happens to an elderly person the results can be more devastating. Having a
Life Alert bracelet or pendant can help save the senior's life but preventing a fire before it even gets that far can result in far less financial and human casualty.
So, Aunt Helen lights her scented candle and falls asleep in the living room watching TV with the candle burning that wonderful Jasmine scent she so loves, but then, the flame gets out of control, black smoke starts billowing out, and sparks start lapping at the fringed lamp shade that's over the candle. Surely, if Aunt Helen can smell the jasmine, she can smell the black smoke! But did you know that olfactic impairments increase for seniors with each passing year and recent research indicates that people over 60 have "30 percent of some olfactory impairment. By age 80, this percentage has risen to over 60 percent."
The U.S. Fire Administration makes a direct link between age and being able to smell smoke in the home:
The sense of smell diminishes as people age. In older adults, this loss can occur in tandem with other physical and mental problems that are themselves fire and fire injury risks.
Moreover, recent research has indicated that sense of smell is not effective at detecting smoke or fires during sleep, according to The Fire Administration, and that 40% of elder fire casualties occur when sleeping. By the time smoke is discovered, it may be too late for the senior to react.
O.k., so now you're convinced, open flames and seniors can be a dangerous combination and buying Aunt Helen that scented candle may not be a good idea. So to show her you really care you're going to buy her a smoke detector. Well, here is another statistic you may want to consider, 60 percent of elders over 80 have a hearing impediment according to the US Fire Administration. Their research concludes that, "hearing impairments affect 37% of all Americans 65 years and older", and loss of hearing increases even more the older one gets.
Furthermore, the U.S. Fire Administration discovered evidence suggesting that older Americans have difficulty hearing the smoke alarm while sleeping:
In 2003, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission launched a 2 year study to investigate smoke alarm waking effectiveness among children and older adult after research indicated that those groups had difficulty hearing or responding to the sound from smoke alarms.
Though it's always a good idea to have a smoke detector in the house but standard fire alarms just make noise to warn an occupant. If the senior is hearing impaired or asleep on medication they might not hear the alarm at all. Whereas when a
Life Alert detector is activated, it sounds the alarm, but also notifies the fire department too. This kind of early detection can mean the difference between life and death,
Consider this, seniors live on a fixed income and at their age it's almost impossible to regain the financial security after a devastating fire. Homeowner's insurance will only payout a claim settlement and will not be able to replace the years of personal valuables such as photos, jewelry, china, or great grandma's vase. When seconds matter having a direct line into the fire department can make the difference between being able to salvage valuable heirlooms versus total loss.
If you think fire could pose a danger to you or an elderly loved one there are many ways you can safeguard the home. Such as:
Use large, deep ashtrays, and NEVER smoke in bed.
Make sure space heaters have space and there is nothing around them.
Stay by the stove while cooking and try to avoid sitting down if possible.
This will reduce the risk of falling asleep.
Don't over load an electrical socket.
Look for and replace faulty wiring.
Plan and practice an escape route from the home based on your abilities.
Enroll in a local educational protection program for seniors.
Fire education and prevention for seniors will address necessary actions that can be taken to reduce the risk of injury or fatality. Additionally, it can help save the lives by teaching your elderly loved ones how to create a safe environment and follow evacuation procedures.
So, instead of getting Aunt Helen that scented candle, play it safe and enroll her into a fire prevention program and buy her a
Life Alert detector. You might just save her life.
by: Heidi Nestor
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