Pa. representative proposing bill that would require all rental properties to have smoke alarms

PITTSBURGH — In the last week in our region, seven people were killed in six separate house fires. From Washington County to Fayette County to Allegheny County, the fire marshals are still investigating the causes, but it’s not a new season to our firefighters.

“We typically refer to wintertime as fire season. There is an increase use of utilities in both natural gas and electric furnaces and people in their homes are finding creative ways to heat their home and all of those things contribute more fires igniting,” said Chief Greg Porter with Etna Volunteer Fire Department.

While there are ways to prevent some of these fires by checking your electrical outlets are not overloaded and servicing your furnace, Porter said by far the best prevention is having working smoke alarms.

“Making sure those smoke alarms are up to today’s standards, if there is one in the home, they should all be linked with one in each bedroom so if the alarm goes off in the basement it will activate all the smoke alarms in the bedrooms as well,” Porter said.

Yet still many homes don’t have them or they are taken down because the batteries are dead.

That’s why Representative Jim Haddock is proposing a bill that would require all rental properties to have a ten-year tamper-resistant smoke alarm when a new occupant takes over or when a smoke alarm is replaced.

“If ever god forbid have a fire in the unit and you could save a life there is no value on a life,” Haddock said.

Haddock, a landlord himself, sees value in making sure people are safe and going the extra step to make this a law.

“Everybody agrees in the industry this is a lifesaving bill and we’d start it with rental properties and hopefully get it into residential units,” Haddock said.

With inspections, Haddock believes it wouldn’t be difficult to enforce.

“If it’s state law, it will eventually be built into the building codes in Pennsylvania,” Haddock said.

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