How secure is your home? You might be surprised to learn that your home is not as protected as you think. In fact, many homeowners do not properly protect their homes from burglaries or home invasions. Some even unsnowingly adopt behaviours that make their homes a magnet for intruders. These security errors must be avoided at all costs.

Mistakes of the past

In the past, families often kept a key under a doormat or possibly inside a potted plant for easy access to a house. This type of error has facilitated access for criminals hoping to enter a house without difficulty.

While many of us have learned the lesson of leaving access to a home in a place where others can easily spot it to find it, we still make some pretty obvious mistakes when it comes to the security of our home.

To help our readers understand that certain things in and around your home can either deter a burglar or lure them into your home, we create this short list of security errors that go far beyond leaving a key under the carpet.

All homes in Massachusetts are, by law, required to have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms. This is necessary in order to alert residents to an accumulation of smoke caused by a fire or deadly CO often caused by equipment burning fossil fuels in a house, such as a furnace or wood stove.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, an average of 1,450 fire deaths occur each year in homes with missing or not working smoke detectors. Unfortunately, many owners let batteries run out and/or do not replace them after a certain number of years, resulting in functionality failure. Therefore, despite the laws on these devices, many homes are not protected in case of fire or CO poisoning.

Statistics

Smoke detectors provide early warning of a fire and CO detectors alert homeowners to high levels of deadly CO gas in a home, giving people extra escape time. In 2012/2016, three-quarters (74%) and sounded in more than half (53%) of domestic fires reported to U.S. Fire Departments.

CO detectors, on the other hand, have only been in existence since 1993 and, like smoke detectors, can save lives. These detectors protect us from CO, a toxic gas that is also colorless, odorless and deadly. This toxic gas is produced by the incomplete combustion of fuels such as coal, wood, charcoal, oil, kerosene, propane and natural gas. On average, about 170 people die each year from CO produced by non-automotive consumer products.

Instant alarm Fire and smoke detection

With the thousands of lives lost each year and the millions of property damage caused by residential fires, it makes sense to have a fire and smoke alarm system professionally installed in your home. We can place the detectors in the places required by state law and then connect them to our monitoring stations that can alert the competent authorities if the sensors go off.

Instant Alarm offers wireless and Internet monitoring options. You do not need a telephone line for surveillance because we know that many households no longer use a fixed line.

Instant monitoring of alarm CO

Since CO is a colorless and odorless gas, the alert from a CO monitor may be the only warning your family receives. The CO system we install in homes is monitored by our operators in our own UL certified central monitoring station. Just like fire and smoke detectors, we also offer wireless and Internet monitoring options for our CO systems.