Smoke Alarms, how many is enough?

Over the past two weeks or so the Sheboygan Press has run numerous articles about a proposed ordinance by the City of Sheboygan that would make it mandatory to have a smoke alarm in each bedroom. There was much public outcry with this, resulting in a few opinion letters sent to and then published by the Sheboygan Press. The opinion letters that I read all stated that they believe that the government is basically overstepping its boundaries once again, and I tend to agree.

It is not that I do not believe in protecting my family, we have 2 working smoke detectors in our apartment, one in the hall between the two bedrooms and one at the other end of the hall between the kitchen and living room. I am a responsible adult, and know how to maintain my smoke alarm. I know that there are people who do not routinely change the batteries, remove the batteries, or destroy the alarm itself (I have had to replace one personally from damaging it with a broom during a cooking gone bad session) and then never replace it. These people are the reason behind this new proposal, requirements and fines, making it unfair to those of us who are responsible.

Since the original proposal, and the outcry, there has been a change to wording of the proposal from making it mandatory to making it recommended that each bedroom have a detector, which is more reasonable to me. There are still issues surrounding the proposal, such as requiring homes to use lithium or hard wired detectors versus the traditional 9volt in most homes, making the detectors more tamper resistant and/or with a long lasting battery. Great idea, especially when dealing with irresponsible people, however forcing responsible people to make changes to their homes or apartments, when the detectors they are using are operational, is unfair. This is another issue, perfect for another blog.