Excerpts from the ChicagoSunTimes.com:

Chicago’s oldest residential buildings would have until 2023 to install smoke detectors with 10-year batteries under a costly fire safety mandate advanced Monday over the objections of the Chicago Fire Department.

Fire Commissioner Richard Ford II and Public Safety Committee chairman Chris Taliaferro are against the idea. They’re concerned about the added cost to homeowners already absorbing a punishing parade of property tax increases.

The new mandate threatens to undermine years of public education campaigns and free smoke detector distribution by CFD.

“There’s a reason why we say, `Daylight savings time, check your batteries.’ Now, we’re gonna say, `Don’t check it for 10 years.’ Now you’re asking seniors to remember ten years down the road to change or check their batteries when we have put years embedded in” a public education campaign, Beale said.

The Chicago Fire Department will pass out the old versions until Jan. 1, 2023, when the mandate takes effect. But once those smoke detectors expire, the owners of buildings erected or converted to residential use before June 1, 1984 must install smoke detectors with the 10-year batteries.

“The cheapest standard detector is $5. The cheapest 10-year we find is $15. While it’s true that, in the long run, it’s cheaper to operate, most people make the purchase based on what they can spend now,” Langford wrote in a text message to the Sun-Times.

“We give away thousands of units every year, but we have to pay for them. This means we will pass out 66 percent less. If we’re giving out 66 percent less and the cost to poor folk is tripled to $15-plus, we will lose on private homes. … Single family homes will see a big drop in purchases.”

 

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