Having working smoke alarms and integrated smoke and fire in your home alarm system are two simple ways you can protect yourself and your family from the threat of fire.

I was really taken by a story I read about a newspaper delivery man in Victorville, Calif., who saved four adults and three kids sleeping in their home while it burned.

The delivery man, who was not named in the news account I read, saw the smoke coming out of the home during his early morning rounds. So he went up to the house and started banging on the door to get everybody out to safety.

By the time firefighters arrived, the house had a huge amount of damage to the attic and roof. No word yet on whether the smoke detectors went off or not.

My first thought was, who gets a newspaper delivered to their home anymore other than this family and me?!

But on a more serious note, you may be sound asleep and there will be nobody there to be a hero if you don't have smoke detectors. You've got to get this one done. Smoke detectors are cheap and come with 10-year batteries now. Finally, don't forget to ask your home alarm monitoring company about integrated smoke and fire detection.