Home Security Systems and Alarm System Monitoring; Security at Home

Home Safety is of vital importance to every family, no matter what their circumstances or budget. Because every home should be safe, we are offering some home safety tips that you can apply to your own home that won’t bust your budget. Many of the simplest, yet most effective home safety tips that we supply cost nothing but a change in behavior.

Here are some simple home safety tips that can make a big difference

1.Adjust your water heater to 120 degrees Every year, many people are scaled by too hot water in the shower or bath. The elderly and children are especially vunerable to this occurring, and, though it may sound trivial, many die each year as a result of burns. In addition, this will save energy costs on your oil or electrical bill, depending on your water heating set up.
2.Clean greasy stoves, ovens and exhaust hoods to prevent grease fires. Grease fires in the kitchen are a major safety hazard. Always keep an up-to-date fire extinguisher in the kitchen for emergencies.
3.Clean lint-filled dryer vents. Dryers start hundreds of home fires every year, but then can be avoided if you clean your lint vent regularly. A working smoke alarm hooked into your security system will alert emergency responders to any fire.
4.Keep cleaning agents and chemicals locked up and away from kids. Child safety locks on all of your cabinets will help ensure you children’s safety, but remember to also talk with your children about the dangers of household chemicals.
5.Make a evacuation plan for the house, and have regular fire drills that include all members of your family. Have at least 2 exits planned for every room in your home.

Here at Guardian Alarms, we believe that security and safety don’t begin and end at your front door, and that preventing burglaries and home invasions are only a part of the job. Helping our customers adopt a safe lifestyle and an observant awareness of safety and security risks is one of our missions.
Home safety concerns grown exponentially when there are children in the home. The lack of experienced logical reasoning combined with curiosity and dexterity provides many children with very dangerous opportunities, but there are steps that you can take to help negate these risks.
Associated press reported on a child who was killed when she became trapped in a washing machine. In the past there were children who were killed in dryers while hiding in them, but that risk was cut down in the 80’s and 90’s as more parents became aware of the risks. Now, however, the popularity of the front loading washer and dryers, along with the deadly placement of controls, is leading to a new rash of injuries and deaths.

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. - A 4-year-old girl in Southern California died after she climbed into a washing machine that began tumbling when her toddler brother hit its simple push-button start.
Orange County Sheriff's spokesman ***name removed*** said ***name removed*** apparently climbed into the front-loading washer Monday afternoon. Her 15-month-old brother either bumped or pushed the button to start the machine.
***name removed*** said the machine's controls were only 20 inches from the floor and the start switch was a simple push button. The girl was in the water-filled, tumbling machine for at least two minutes before her mother found her.

For your children’s safety, please ensure that any front loader washer/dryers with low controls are in a locked location.

Burglars who target banks are often desperate enough to take the very large and very real risk of being caught. Most burglars who target houses do so under the cover of anonymity and try to break in, steal items and then get out before anyone even learns of their presence. In the case of bank robbers, however, burglars have to take the risk of robbing the bank during the daylight hours with many people standing around.
While it can be assumed that all bank robbers are criminals, it cannot be assumed that any of them are intelligent.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, a white male walked into a TCF Bank in St. Paul earlier this month and demanded cash from a teller. His request was met with acquiescence and he was able to make off with $1598..

The two facts that make this case interesting and slightly amusing are:
1. The man had on a very, very distinctive winter hat with fuzzy ear flaps, and
2. He provided the teller with a handwritten note that read “This is just a short term loan I will pay it back in full by 9-20-09"

The hat this man was wearing in no way covered his face from security cameras and, to make matters worse for the burglar, it was a favorite hat that he wore often. The end result was that, when his picture was floated around in local news, his neighbors and friends recognized him immediately.

This burglar won’t be paying his short-term loan back anytime soon.

The availability of home security system accessories and add ons have given consumers to protect there homes form much more than burglaries and home invasions. Whereas these types of accessories and add ons were costly additions a decade ago, many are now standard in basic home security set ups and most are offered for a nominal fee that is a one-time cost for the equipment.

Some of the accessories are the more common, such as additional keypads for extra zones in your home. There are accessories that are provided for convenience, such as keychain remotes . These are perfect for arming your system when you‘ve just locked the door and are walking out. No more setting the alarm and trying to beat the timer out the door!

Motion Detectors are perfect for covering large areas and multiple points of entry. You don’t even need to worry about the pets, because you can set the sensors to ignore cats and dogs up to 40 pounds.

Glass Break Detectors are a perfect solution to solarium and sunroom security flaws. Glass Break Detectors will alert your home security alarm if glass is broken near the detector.

Smoke Detectors hooked into your system alert the fire department immediately in case of an emergency. You don’t have to worry about being home to hear the alarm.

Carbon Monoxide Detectors are a great solution to the dangers of newer, more airtight homes. They will alert the system if they detect dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in the vicinity of the carbon monoxide detector.

Do you worry about flooding in your waterfront property? New Water Sensors will sense moisture levels and alert the central monitoring station of unusual moisture levels.

As reports of more arson-started fires come in from the beleaguered Pennsylvania area that has suffered a string of fires since 2008, officials have begun denouncing the crimes as acts of terror. The most recent fires in the area were caught quickly and extinguished before there was a total loss to the homes, and no one was hurt in the blazes.

Residents in this area are taking a very pro-active approach to their safety and security by installing numerous fire detectors and creating neighborhood watch programs to keep an eye on each other's properties. As we have said numerous times before, good neighbors make safe neighborhoods. Never underestimate the power a watchful neighbor!

CNN.com reported:

Four more fires were deliberately set early Saturday in an area of eastern Pennsylvania plagued by arsons, authorities said,
The residential fires occurred from 12:35 to 7 a.m. Saturday in Chester County, Pennsylvania, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
A county task force declared that the blazes, which began on the front and side porches of homes, were arson, officials said in a statement.
The area, near Coatesville, Pennsylvania -- about 40 miles west of Philadelphia -- has been beset by a string of arsons in recent weeks.
Authorities said that at least 30 fires were deliberately set in Coatesville in 2008 and 2009.
Of those, more than half have occurred in the past four weeks. One of the first swept through 15 homes last weekend.
"These fires share a commonality with the fires already under investigation, but at this point we will not say that they are directly linked to the arsonist or arsonists in Coatesville," ATF spokesman John Hageman said Saturday.
The ATF is reviewing fires in neighboring communities to see whether there were any occurrences of arson before the federal agency became involved in the investigation, he said
All four of the fires early Saturday were caught early, and fire departments were on the scene quickly. None of the homes was completely lost, Hageman said.

Burglary of vehicles, whether stealing the vehicle or just the items within it, are nothing new on the crime scene, however some recent urban legends are taking car thefts to new heights. Many stories are circulating the internet right now stating the same basic story:

A burglar breaks into a car and steals it, but then goes one step further. The burglar uses the car’s GPS system to find the car’s owner’s home address and, using the garage door opener in the car, gains access into the home and steals it. All the while the person who’s car has been stolen is filing a police report on the stolen vehicle.

While no actual incidents have come to light of burglars gaining access into the home itself on such a crime spree, there have been documented cases of car thieves using GPS system and garage door openers to steal items from the homeowner’s garages.

The idea of the story, and the crime itself, may sound like an interesting plan for a burglar, however brining a stolen vehicle back to it’s home and basically assuming (or hoping) that no else is occupying the home at that time, is a very big risk for a burglar to take. As is usually the case, burglars prefer to go about their business while the home they’re breaking into is unoccupied. Bringing a stolen vehicle back to the home would be a sure-fire way to get caught and very few burglars would ever take that chance.

As a precautionary measure, however, it is always good advice to keep your GPS system hidden and out of sight while in your car.

Changing over your home security monitoring services to a new company can be nerve-wracking. After all, you are entrusting your home and family’s safety and security to someone else. In addition, some people feel that they are stuck with the monitoring services that came with the alarm system when it was installed, but that isn’t true. Many people request that Guardian take over monitoring services on home security systems that were initially purchased and installed by another company. Bottom line, you don’t need to purchase a new Guardian system and get rid of your old system to take advantage of our state-of-the-art monitoring services.

If you have an existing electronic security system in your home, we can use what you already have to continue guarding your home and family’s safety. Guardian can work with almost any type of security system that you may have. In addition, everything currently installed on your security system will be monitored all for the same low Guardian price.

The most important question usually involves monitoring services and if we can provide it on systems other than our own. The answer to that is simple: Guardian can provide 24 hour monitoring even on a system that is preexisting from another company.

For customers of other companys that are dissatisfied with their services, we invite you to talk to us and see how we can make a difference for you.
For existing Guardain customers who have purchased new homes with existing security systems, we can happily transfer your contract and send out a specialist to review the system’s requirements and have it up and running with us in no time at all.

Security monitoring is important, and you should hire only the best.

Safety isn¡¦t about luck, it is about being prepared and aware of the situation and having a plan to safely get through it. CPR training is a life-saving process that you should always know.
Remember, if you find yourself needed to do CPR on another person, here are the recommendations from the American Heart Association:

„X Untrained. If you're not trained in CPR, then provide hands-only CPR. That means uninterrupted chest presses of about two per second until paramedics arrive (described in more detail below). You don't need to try rescue breathing.
„X Trained, and ready to go. If you're well trained, and confident in your ability, then you can opt for one of two approaches: 1. Alternate between 30 chest compressions and two rescue breaths, or 2. Just do chest compressions. (Details described below.)
„X Trained, but rusty. If you've previously received CPR training, but you're not confident in your abilities, then it's fine to do just chest compressions.

Performing CPR on a child
The procedure for giving CPR to a child age 1 through 8 is essentially the same as that for an adult. The differences are as follows:

„X If you're alone, perform five cycles of compressions and breaths on the child ¡X this should take about two minutes ¡X before calling 911 or your local emergency number or using an AED.
„X Use only one hand to perform heart compressions.
„X Breathe more gently.
„X Use the same compression-breath rate as is used for adults: 30 compressions followed by two breaths. This is one cycle. Following the two breaths, immediately begin the next cycle of compressions and breaths.
„X After five cycles (about two minutes) of CPR, if there is no response and an AED is available, apply it and follow the prompts. Use pediatric pads if available. If pediatric pads aren't available, use adult pads.

If you are trained in CPR, it is still important to keep your CPR training skills up-to-date and repeat the training every two years.

With training, you are able to perform complete CPR to resusitate a victim, and the following steps are a simple guide to help you remember your training:

CPR for Adults:

1. Attempt to wake victim. Briskly rub your knuckles against the victim's sternum. If the victim does not wake, call 911 and then proceed to step 2. If the victim wakes, moans, or moves, then CPR is not necessary at this time. Call 911 if the victim is confused or not able to speak.

2. Begin rescue breathing. Open the victim's airway using the head-tilt, chin-lift method. Put your ear to the victim's open mouth:
look for chest movement
listen for air flowing through the mouth or nose
feel for air on your cheek

3. If there is no breathing, pinch the victim's nose; make a seal over the victim's mouth with yours. Use a CPR mask if available. Give the victim a breath big enough to make the chest rise. Let the chest fall, then repeat the rescue breath once more.

4. Begin chest compressions. Place the heel of your hand in the middle of the victim's chest. Put your other hand on top of the first with your fingers interlaced. Compress the chest about 1-1/2 to 2 inches (4-5 cm). Allow the chest to completely recoil before the next compression. Compress the chest at a rate equal to 100/minute. Perform 30 compressions at this rate.

5. Repeat rescue breaths. Open the airway with head-tilt, chin-lift again. This time, go directly to rescue breaths without checking for breathing again. Give one breath, making sure the chest rises and falls, then give another.

6. Perform 30 more chest compressions. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for about two minutes.
Stop compressions and recheck victim for breathing. If the victim is not breathing, continue chest compressions and rescue breaths.
Keep going until help arrives.

Here at Guardian Alarms, we believe that safety shouldn’t begin or end at your home’s front door, but instead be a lifelong habit of actions and thought. To that end, we occasionally discuss safety tips to keep you safe, secure, and healthy.

When blood flow or breathing stops, every second is vital to survival. Permanent brain damage or death can happen very quickly in such cases, and knowing how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) could save the life of someone you love.

CPR is an emergency procedure for a person whose heart has stopped or who is no longer breathing. CPR can maintain circulation and breathing until emergency medical help arrives.

While complete training and certification for CPR is preferred, you can do “hands-only” CPR for a person whose heart has stopped beating. “Hands-only” CPR uses chest compressions to keep blood circulating until emergency help arrives.

If you’ve had CPR training, you can use chest compressions and rescue breathing techniques to help restore the victim. Rescue breathing helps get oxygen to the lungs for a person who has stopped breathing.

It is important to keep your CPR training skills up-to-date and repeat the training every two years.

CPR for Adults:

1. Attempt to wake victim. Briskly rub your knuckles against the victim's sternum. If the victim does not wake, call 911 and then proceed to step 2. If the victim wakes, moans, or moves, then CPR is not necessary at this time. Call 911 if the victim is confused or not able to speak.

2. Begin rescue breathing. Open the victim's airway using the head-tilt, chin-lift method. Put your ear to the victim's open mouth:
look for chest movement
listen for air flowing through the mouth or nose
feel for air on your cheek

We will discuss the next steps in tomorrows post on Adult CPR