Smoke detectors in outbuildings

Alarm alerts you wherever you are

Listen to this radio show (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Don Uhrich, president, Save On Security Systems

With all the dust and dryness in our outbuildings, it would only take seconds for a flame to become a raging fire. We have lightning rods on the barn, and a couple of smoke detectors in the shop. My husband Bob does a lot of welding in there, and you just never know when a spark will fly off in the wrong direction. We would hear the smoke detectors go off when we're out there, but not when we're inside the house.

Don Uhrich is the president of a company that sells smoke detectors especially for outbuildings. If you're asleep at 2:00 a.m. and there's a fire, you'll know it.

"We have the ability with this special smoke detector to send a signal into the power grid that hooks between the barn or outbuilding and the house," Uhrich says. "So you can get a signal through that line without having to run extra wires. And that will sound an audible alarm inside your house."

The unit also comes with lights that flash.

If you're not at home when the alarm goes off, the system will call you. It activates a telephone dialer, which can call up to four numbers. The fire department would be first on my list.