Test Your Smoke Alarms and Make a Two-Minute Escape Plan
A short weekend job: test every smoke alarm, check how old it is, and agree with everyone at home on how you get out and where you meet.
Jarrett Chisholm, ACP · October 24, 2026
Where this is taught: Stay Safe! and Babysitter Training.
This week has been about heat, smoke and burns at home. Here is the part that protects everyone in the house at once, and it takes about as long as making a coffee: test the smoke alarms, check their age, and agree on how you all get out. the rest of this week on heat, smoke and burns at home.
Image needed · hero
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Bright hallway in a family home. An adult on a small step stool reaches up and presses the test button on a round ceiling smoke alarm. A child of about eight watches from a bedroom doorway, hands over ears and smiling. Everyday clothes, natural daylight.
Alt text ready: “An adult standing on a step stool in a hallway, pressing the test button on a ceiling smoke alarm while a child watches from a bedroom doorway.”
Smoke alarms are what wake people up before the smoke reaches them. They only do that if they work, if they are in the right places, and if everyone in the house knows what to do when one goes off.
Do it this weekend, with everyone who lives with you, including the kids.
Test every alarm
Press and hold the test button on each alarm until it sounds. The Calgary Fire Department and Health Canada both advise testing once a month. If an alarm stays quiet, replace the battery and test again. If it still does nothing, replace the alarm.
Now check the age. Smoke alarms do not last forever: the sensors wear out. Both advise replacing any smoke alarm that is more than ten years old. The manufacture date is usually printed on the back, so twist it off the ceiling and look.
While you are up there, check you have enough of them:
- At least one on every level of the home, including the basement.
- One inside every bedroom, or in the hallway right outside the sleeping areas.
- A working carbon monoxide alarm if you have a furnace, fireplace, gas appliance or attached garage.
Make the two-minute plan
An escape plan does not need to be written down or laminated. It needs everyone in the house to know three things, and to have said them out loud at least once.
The three things everyone needs to know:
- Two ways out of every room, where possible: the door, and a window. For upper floors, the Calgary Fire Department suggests a home escape ladder.
- Where to meet outside: one fixed spot, like the neighbour's driveway or a particular tree, so you can count heads quickly.
- Who helps whom: which adult gets the baby, who helps an older relative, so nobody wastes time deciding.
Image needed · diagram
home-escape-plan-two-ways-out-diagram.svg
Bird's-eye floor plan of a simple bungalow with three bedrooms, a kitchen and living room. From each bedroom, a solid gold arrow through the door to the front exit and a dashed gold arrow through the window. Both lead to a marked meeting place at the end of the driveway, labelled Meet here. Smoke alarm icons in each bedroom and hallway. Charcoal line work.
Alt text ready: “Simple floor plan of a house with two escape routes marked from each bedroom, a door route and a window route, leading to a meeting place at the end of the driveway.”
Walk through it with children in their own rooms, at their height. Ask them to show you their two ways out. A plan a child has walked through is a plan they are much more likely to follow when an alarm wakes them in the dark. the Stay Safe course for children starting to stay home on their own.
Two minutes on the heaters
While you are going room to room, look at any portable heater. Health Canada advises keeping them at least 1 metre from beds, couches, curtains and clothing, plugging them straight into the wall rather than an extension cord or power bar, and unplugging them when you go out or go to bed. If one has been pushed against a bed since last winter, now is the time to move it.
That is the whole job. The testing costs nothing, and it is the single most useful thing on this week's list. how long to cool a burn, and what to leave off it.
Quick answers
- How often should smoke alarms be tested?
- Once a month, by pressing and holding the test button, as advised by the Calgary Fire Department and Health Canada. Replace the battery if it does not sound, and replace the alarm if it still does not work.
- How long do smoke alarms last?
- Replace any smoke alarm that is more than ten years old. The manufacture date is usually printed on the back of the alarm.
- Where should smoke alarms go?
- At least one on every level of the home, including the basement, and one inside every bedroom or in the hallway outside the sleeping areas. Add a carbon monoxide alarm if the home has any fuel-burning appliance or an attached garage.
- What should a home fire escape plan include?
- Two ways out of every room where possible, one fixed meeting place outside, and a clear agreement about who helps babies, children and anyone who needs assistance. Walk through it with everyone in the home, including children.
Sources
- City of Calgary (Calgary Fire Department): Install at least one smoke alarm on every level including the basement and in or outside every sleeping area; test monthly; replace after ten years; have a working CO alarm; use an escape ladder for upper-storey window routes. (checked 2026-09-23)
- Health Canada: Test smoke alarms every month, replace any smoke alarm more than ten years old, and create and practise a home evacuation plan. (checked 2026-09-23)
- Health Canada: Keep portable electric heaters at least 1 metre from combustible materials, unplug them when leaving home or going to sleep, and never plug one into an extension cord or power bar. (checked 2026-09-23)