Your first night: smoke alarms, exits, shutoffs and a first-night box

Test the alarms, walk two ways out, find the water shutoff and the breaker panel, know the gas-odor steps, and pack a box for the first night.

1. Smoke alarms: where they go, testing and the sounds Understand

The first night in a new home is the first night you depend on its alarms. A smoke alarm is a device that senses smoke and sounds a loud signal in the home where it hangs. NFPA, the fire-safety standards body, separates it from a smoke detector, which is only a sensor wired to a whole-building fire alarm system (NFPA, Smoke alarms). An apartment can have both: a building system in the hallway and a smoke alarm inside the unit. This chapter is about the alarms inside your home.

Time is the reason to check them before the first night rather than after unpacking. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) says you may have less than 2 minutes to get out once an alarm sounds (USFA, Smoke Alarms). NFPA's page says roughly three of five home fire deaths happen in homes with no smoke alarms or none that work.

Where they go

USFA and NFPA agree on placement. Alarms belong inside each bedroom, outside each sleeping area (in the hallway), and on every level of the home; NFPA names the basement too. They go on the ceiling or high on a wall. NFPA adds two places to keep them out of: kitchens and bathrooms, and anywhere closer than 10 feet (3 m) to the stove, because cooking sets off nuisance alarms.

On the first night you are not installing anything. You are comparing what is there with that list: a bedroom with no alarm, a hallway with none, a basement or second floor with none. Each gap is a line on the home facts sheet and, in a rental, a question for the landlord.

Testing, and what each sound means

Both agencies say to test every alarm at least once a month by pressing its test button. A working alarm answers with a loud, repeating three-beep pattern. If it stays silent, NFPA says to change the battery, or replace the whole unit if it is more than 10 years old. A step stool reaches a ceiling alarm more steadily than a chair; on many models a broom handle pressed against the button also works. Product-specific

The manual for your model may add other patterns, and some alarms speak their warning. NFPA suggests looking up the brand and model online if the manual is gone. Product-specific

Batteries and the 10-year rule

NFPA says to replace every smoke alarm 10 years after its manufacture date, which is printed on the back of the unit. USFA gives the care by type of power:

Cooking smoke is the usual false alarm. USFA's guidance is to leave the battery in, and instead open a window, press the hush button, or wave a towel near the alarm.

USFA says only qualified electricians install hard-wired alarms. In a rental, who replaces batteries, who replaces alarms and who adds a missing one is set by the lease and by state and local law, not by this manual. Ask the landlord or manager, in writing, and record the answer. Ask the authority

2. Carbon monoxide: where it comes from and which homes check for an alarm

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a gas you cannot see or smell. In a home, it comes from burning fuel. NFPA names fuel-burning heating and cooking equipment as the potential sources inside, and a vehicle or generator running in an attached garage as another (NFPA, Carbon monoxide safety). USFA says poisoning can occur when a fuel-burning appliance such as a furnace, heater or generator is not working or not vented properly (USFA, Carbon Monoxide).

A CO alarm senses the gas and sounds. Because the gas has no smell, the alarm is how a household finds out. It is a different device from a smoke alarm, though some units combine both; the label says which. Product-specific

Which homes check for a CO alarm

Here the sources differ, and we show both.

• Our default. If the home has any fuel-burning appliance (a gas or propane stove, a gas, oil or propane furnace or boiler, a gas water heater, a fireplace or wood stove) or an attached garage, find the CO alarm and test it, or write that there is none. NFPA, USFA and CPSC all agree that a home like this needs one. Setup calls these "fuel" choices; the green box below reads yours.
• The broader advice. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's childproofing guide says to install CO alarms outside bedrooms even if the home has no fuel-burning appliances (CPSC, Childproofing Your Home). A household with no fuel in the home that wants to follow CPSC can add a battery CO alarm, or ask the landlord about one, as its own choice.

If you do not know what fuels the home uses, look at the stove (flames or electric burners), then check the lease, or ask the landlord which fuel the heat and the water heater use. Until you know, treat the home as one that checks for a CO alarm. Convention

Where alarms go: NFPA and USFA both say a central location outside each separate sleeping area and on every level, and NFPA adds wherever laws or codes require them. NFPA says to test them at least monthly and replace them as the maker says.

When a CO alarm sounds

NFPA's rule for garages is not to run a vehicle or engine in one, even with the door open. NFPA and CPSC both say a portable generator belongs outside, at least 20 feet from doors, windows and vents. USFA adds keeping dryer, furnace, stove and fireplace vents clear of snow.

3. Two ways out, the extinguisher and the keys

An escape plan is a household's agreed way out of the home in a fire: two exits from every room, a place to meet outside, and practice. USFA's steps are to draw a map of the home with every door and window, find two ways out of every room, keep the exits clear, choose an outside meeting place in front of the home, and practice with everyone in the household, starting by pressing the smoke alarm test button (USFA, Home Fire Escape Plans). NFPA says to practice twice a year and suggests a meeting place a safe distance away, such as a neighbor's house, a light post or a mailbox (NFPA, Escape planning).

On the first night, the minimum is to walk the two ways out of the room you sleep in and the main room, all the way to the outside, with the lights on. You are checking three things: that both routes open (a window that is painted shut or a door blocked by boxes is not a route), that you can find them, and where they lead.

In an apartment building

In a building, the two ways out often start at your unit's door and split in the hallway: two stairways, or a stairway and a fire escape, as the building has them. USFA's apartment steps are to know where the exit stairs are, leave and close the door behind you, pull the building's fire alarm on the way out, use the stairs and not the elevator, go to the meeting place and call the fire department, and tell them if someone is trapped. Walk from your door to each exit stair once and count the doors on the way, so you can find it in smoke. If a room's only other opening is an upper-floor window, write that down and ask the manager what the building's plan is for it. Ask the authority

NFPA's rule is to stay out once you are out and tell the dispatcher if anyone is missing. Closing doors behind you slows the spread of smoke, heat and fire, which NFPA notes on its smoke alarm page as well.

A fire extinguisher, and when to leave instead

A fire extinguisher is a pressurized container that sprays an agent onto a small fire. For a home, USFA points to a multipurpose unit labelled ABC, which it says covers most home fires, with a UL or ULC listing on the label (USFA, Fire Extinguishers). Some rentals provide one; the lease or the landlord says. Buying one belongs to the first month on the safety checklist, not the first night.

USFA says to use one only when every answer below is yes. If any answer is no, alert everyone, get out, and call 911 from outside or a neighbor's phone.

The method is PASS: Pull the pin, Aim low at the base of the fire, Squeeze the handle slowly and evenly, Sweep from side to side. USFA adds that young children and older adults should not use extinguishers, and suggests checking that the unit is reachable, the pressure gauge is in the green, and it is undamaged and clean. Cooking fires have their own steps (a lid on a pan fire, the oven door kept closed), taught in A working kitchen.

Locks and keys

Lease and move-in record counted the keys you received and asked who else may have one. On the first night, lock every door and window that has a lock, and try each key once. In a rental, changing or rekeying a lock is a question for the landlord, because the lease usually covers it. Ask the authority An owner decides for themselves: previous owners, agents and contractors may still hold keys, which is the usual reason owners rekey.

4. Shutoffs: water, power and a gas smell

Three systems can need stopping fast: water, electricity and gas. On the first night you find the first two and learn the steps for the third. You are not repairing anything; you are making sure that if a pipe bursts or a circuit trips at midnight, you know where to go and whom to call.

The main water shutoff

The main water shutoff is the valve that stops all water into the home. No federal agency or extension service page we found explains finding one, so we use a city water utility's guidance as an example. Columbus, Ohio's water division says the main valve sits next to the water meter, where the service line enters the house, typically in a basement, a utility closet, or wherever the furnace and water heater are (City of Columbus, Locating a Water Meter & Emergency Service Valve). It says to mark the valve, show everyone in the house how to turn it off, and check it by turning it off briefly and confirming the water is off throughout. If it does not work, a plumber repairs it, and Columbus says the property owner is responsible. Your own utility's page may differ. Ask the authority

In an apartment, the valve for your unit may be inside it, in a closet in the hallway, or only in the building's basement, and the manager may not want tenants operating it. Ask where your unit's shutoff is and whether you may test it; then test it only with the landlord's knowledge, and write the answer on the home facts sheet. NC State Extension lists the main shutoff among the places to look for leaks (NC State Extension, Preventative Home Maintenance). A dripping valve is a repair request (Repairs and requests).

The breaker panel

The breaker panel is the metal box where the home's electricity divides into circuits. Each circuit breaker is a switch that opens its circuit when the demand on it exceeds a safe level, which cuts power to that part of the home. Look in closets, hallways and the kitchen in an apartment, and in the basement, garage or utility room in a house. Find it, open its small door (not the cover behind it), and read the labels beside each breaker. NC State Extension says to label each circuit and to call an electrician if a breaker trips often. Resetting a tripped breaker is taught in Repairs and requests. Keep the space in front of the panel clear, so you can reach it in the dark.

A gas smell

Utilities add a chemical to natural gas so a leak smells like rotten eggs. The steps below come from Connecticut's utility regulator; your gas company publishes its own, usually on the bill and its website, and those come first where you live (Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, What To Do If You Smell Natural Gas).

The Connecticut page also suggests a pilot light or a slightly open burner valve as a cause you might fix yourself. This manual does not teach that step: relighting a pilot light or working on a gas appliance is for the gas company or a licensed technician. Write the gas company's emergency number on the home facts sheet, even if the only gas is in the building's basement. If the home has its own gas shutoff and the landlord or the gas company has shown it to you, write where it is; operating it is not part of this manual, and leaving is the step.

The water heater setting

The Department of Energy calls 120°F "a temperature considered safe for most of the population" for a water heater (DOE, Energy Saver Guide, 2022). DOE's renters page adds that lowering it from 140°F to 120°F can reduce the risk of scalding, and that people with a weakened immune system or chronic respiratory disease may want to keep it at 140°F (DOE, Renters). CPSC's childproofing guide says 120°F or lower. In a rental, the landlord sets it, and the safety checklist's line is "the landlord asked." An owner checks the setting and changes it by the heater's manual, or has a plumber do it. We give no savings figure; DOE's own wording is "potentially."

5. The first-night box, the kits, and a young child

The first-night box is one box, packed last and opened first, that holds what the household needs to sleep, wash and get through the next morning before anything else is unpacked. It is this manual's convention, not an agency's list. Convention A common set:

• Bedding for each bed (sheets, a pillow, a blanket) and a towel for each person
• Toilet paper, hand soap and a few trash bags
• Phone chargers and a flashlight
• Medicines anyone takes, and anything a child needs for the night
• A few days of what the household cannot do without: a change of clothes, toothbrushes, food that needs no cooking, a can opener, pet food
• The keys, the lease packet and the landlord's emergency number

The box is also where the first-night checks start: the flashlight is for the breaker panel and the water shutoff, and the landlord's number goes on the home facts sheet.

The first-aid kit and the emergency kit

A first-aid kit is a household item for small injuries. The American Red Cross publishes a list for a family of four: compress dressings, adhesive bandages, cloth tape, antibiotic ointment and antiseptic wipe packets, two packets of 81 mg aspirin, an emergency blanket, a breathing barrier, an instant cold compress, nonlatex gloves, hydrocortisone ointment, roller bandages, sterile gauze pads, an oral thermometer (non-mercury, non-glass), triangular bandages and tweezers (American Red Cross, Make a First Aid Kit). That is the Red Cross's list, repeated here as a list; when and how to use any medicine in it is a question for a pharmacist or doctor. The safety checklist puts the kit in the first month.

An emergency kit is a larger store for a storm or an outage, and it can wait past the first month. Ready.gov's list starts with water, one gallon per person per day for several days, and several days of food that does not spoil, then a battery or hand-crank radio, a flashlight, the first-aid kit, extra batteries, a whistle, a manual can opener, and phone chargers with a backup battery (Ready.gov, Build A Kit). Ready.gov says to replace stored water that was not commercially bottled every six months (Ready.gov, Water) and to rethink the kit every year. The phased plan dates that review a year after the key day.

A young child in the home

If a child under six lives with you or visits, four checks belong to the first week. Each comes from an agency or a pediatric source, and each one lowers a risk without removing it; CPSC's childproofing guide says no device is completely childproof.

• Medicines up and away. Up and Away, a program created with CDC, says to store medicines, vitamins and supplements up high and out of sight, in their original child-resistant containers with the cap twisted until it clicks, and notes that many pill organizers are not child-resistant (Up and Away and Out of Sight). The American Academy of Pediatrics adds cleaning products and laundry and dishwasher packets, ideally in a latched or locked cabinet, before a child crawls or walks (HealthyChildren.org (AAP), Childproofing Your Home for Poisons). Limited space sets up the storage; Cleaning safely covers the cleaning products.
• Windows. CPSC says about 5,600 children 12 and under were treated in emergency departments in 2024 after falling from windows, about one in three of them hospitalized (CPSC, National Window Safety Week release, April 2026). Its advice: window stops so a window opens no more than 4 inches, or window guards; on the sixth floor and below, guards that adults and older children can open in a fire, so the window stays an escape route; and keep furniture away from windows. CPSC's release and its childproofing guide both say screens do not keep children from falling. CPSC says renters should talk with their landlords about guards, so this is a written request in a rental.
• Outlets. CPSC suggests outlet covers that a child cannot remove or choke on, or tamper-resistant outlets (outlets with built-in shutters) when outlets are replaced, which is the landlord's or an electrician's job.
• The number. Poison Help is 1-800-222-1222, free and open around the clock. Put it in every phone and on the home facts sheet.

Tall furniture and TVs that a child could pull over are anchored or put on the request list in Limited space. A free-standing range's anti-tip bracket is in A working kitchen.

6. See it: four households on the first night See it

Free sources behind this chapter:

• USFA, Smoke Alarms: placement, testing and battery care by alarm type, from the federal fire agency.
• NFPA, Carbon monoxide safety: CO sources in a home, alarm placement and what to do when one sounds.
• NFPA, Escape planning: drawing a plan, drills twice a year, and what to do if trapped.
• CPSC, Childproofing Your Home: the federal child-safety list, including CO alarms in every home.

7. Practice: the first-night walk Practice

Minimum: every smoke alarm tested and located, the CO line filled in (an alarm tested, or "none"), the water shutoff and breaker panel located or asked about, both ways out of the bedroom and main room walked, and the first-night box within reach. Time: about 45 minutes on the key day or the first night. Materials: the home facts sheet on a phone or printed, a flashlight, a step stool or a broom handle, the lease packet, and the first-night box.

1. Walk the home once with the lights on. Start at the front door and go room by room. Look up in each room and hallway for smoke and CO alarms, and note any bedroom or level without one.
2. Test each alarm. Press and hold the test button until it sounds. Write its location and the date in the "Smoke alarm locations" line. A silent alarm goes on the line as "no sound" and, in a rental, into a message to the landlord.
3. Decide the CO line. Check the stove, heat and water heater, and whether a garage shares a wall with the home. If any of them burns fuel, find and test the CO alarm, or write "none" and add it to the message.
4. Find the breaker panel and the water shutoff. Read the panel's labels by flashlight. For the water, look in the places the Columbus page names, then ask the manager if you find nothing. Write both locations, or "ask manager."
5. Read the gas-odor steps aloud once, and write the gas company's emergency number on the sheet. Add the landlord's regular and emergency contacts from the lease packet.
6. Walk the two ways out of the room you will sleep in and the main room, to the outside. In a building, walk to each exit stair. Write both routes and a meeting place in front.
7. Check the safety checklist's first-night items on the home facts page, with today's date, and send the landlord one written message listing anything missing.

8. Your home Your home

9. Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Does the home facts sheet list every smoke alarm by location, each with the date you tested it?
• Is every bedroom, the hallway outside the sleeping area, and every level covered, or is each gap written down and asked about?
• Does the CO line say where the alarm is and when it was tested, or "none," and if the home burns fuel or has an attached garage, is "none" followed by a written request?
• Can you say where the water shutoff and the breaker panel are without looking, or is the shutoff marked "ask manager" with the question sent?
• Does the sheet carry the landlord's emergency contact and the gas company's emergency number?
• Have you walked both ways out of the bedroom and the main room to the outside?
• Are the first-night items on the safety checklist checked and dated?

Worked example

Dani's sheet (fictional) lists one alarm, tested on the key day, with "between main room and kitchenette" as its location. A studio has one sleeping area and one level, so one alarm covers NFPA's and USFA's list, as long as it is not within 10 feet of the cooktop; Dani measures and finds it is about 11 feet away. The CO line says "none: no fuel in the unit." The panel is "closet by the door"; the water shutoff is "ask manager," and the message is sent. Both stairways are written down with the meeting place at the corner mailbox. The first-night items are checked with the date. The sheet meets the criteria; the water line stays open until the manager answers.

Common mistakes

• Pulling the battery after a cooking false alarm and forgetting it. Use the hush button or open a window instead, as USFA says.
• Treating the building's hallway detector as the unit's smoke alarm. The hallway device may be a sensor for the building system that does not sound inside your home.
• Writing "none" on the CO line in a home with a gas stove and stopping there. Under our default, "none" in a home with fuel is a request to send.
• Finding the water shutoff and testing it without telling the landlord, then finding it will not turn back on. In a rental, ask first.
• Counting a window on an upper floor as a way out without asking how the building expects it to be used.

What is still unresolved

This chapter cannot tell you what your lease or your state requires of the landlord: who installs, replaces or adds alarms, whether a CO alarm is required, or when a repair is due. Those answers come from the landlord in writing, the lease, and your state or city housing agency. It cannot tell you whether an alarm that sounds on test will sense a real fire, only that it is powered and its sounder works. Repairs to what you found (a dead alarm, a stuck valve, a mislabelled panel) go through the written request in Repairs and requests, and the monthly test goes on the routine in Weekly routines.

10. Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• The home facts sheet has the alarm locations and test date, the shutoff locations and the landlord's emergency contact.
• The safety checklist's first-night items are checked and dated.
• I walked both ways out of the bedroom and the main room to the outside.
• Anything missing (an alarm, a CO alarm in a home with fuel, the water shutoff's location) is in a written message to the landlord, or settled if I own the home.
• I drew the escape plan and ran the first drill. (Go deeper; optional)
• I started the emergency kit from Ready.gov's list. (Go deeper; optional)