How to Turn off a Smoke Alarm

Safety First

Always check to make sure that the alarm is a false alarm. If you were cooking some food in the kitchen, and the kitchen alarm is going off, it's a safe bet you know where it is coming from. But if you wake up and hear an alarm, always follow up and take a few minutes to make sure there is not a fire.

Ventilate

After you are sure there is no fire, you will need to clear the smoke in the room if there is any, if not move on. You'll need to produce either positive pressure ventilation, or simple suction. To produce positive pressure, open the windows in the room to the outside, close all the doors except for one, and place a fan in that doorway to push the air in the room out. This is your best route. If for some reason this won't work, you can place a fan in the window and make simple suction, but this is less effective.

Stand-Alone Smoke Detector

If you have stand-alone smoke detectors, ones that use batteries and are not hooked up to a house wide security system, the process is simple. Get a ladder if need be, and get close to the smoke detector. Some models have a Silence/Reset button on the front. First try pressing that button for 2-10 seconds until the red LED on the front returns to its normal lighting sequence. If this doesn't work or your model does not have such a button, grasp the smoke detector, and twist it off. It should come free from the base which is screwed into the ceiling easily. This will expose the circuitry and battery. Some models will have a reset switch next to the battery, so if it does, you can switch that. If none of these steps have worked, you will have to do a hard reset. Take the battery out, count to ten, and put the battery back in. Then replace the smoke detector.

Hard Wired System

If you have a full fire system that is tied into your security alarm, make sure to keep a phone around you, since the company or a dispatcher may call to check in and make sure everything is ok. First, go look at the detector. If it has a reset button on the outside, try pressing it to reset the detector. If this doesn't work, go to your main control pad and attempt to reset the fire system from there. If this still does not work, some systems require you to go to the main power and circuit box. Once you locate the box, reset the thrown breaker that indicates a smoke detector has been tripped. If all else fails, you can do a hard reset on the system either by unplugging the main power box, or disconnecting the system from the 9-volt battery inside.