Risk Management

Smoke Alarm Best Practices

• by Justin Ford
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The Things That May Keep You From Waking In the Event of a Fire By Justin Ford Most of the world changed their clocks back this past month to adjust to daylight savings time. With that, came the biannual message of “Change Your Clocks, Change Your Batteries” from the local fire department, as a reminder that it is time to replace the batteries in your homes smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarms. This message is outdated and no longer complete. The progression in what we know about smoke alarms and preventing fire deaths in homes has moved forward a long way since that message started coming out in the late 1980s. The 10-year-lithium-battery-powered smoke alarm was invented in 1995 and now more than half the alarms on the market include these types that do not need battery replacement. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) began requiring the replacement of smoke detectors after 10 years in 1999 because 30% of smoke alarms older than 10 years are estimated to not work due to aging, removal of batteries, or failure of the homeowner to replace dead batteries. The real message now, in addition to changing out batteries, should be, “Check your smoke alarm type and check your smoke alarm age. Change if older than 10 years. Change if not sufficient to detect all fire types.” (CO Alarms should be replaced after seven years). Back in the 1980s, when the message was to just change your batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, you had about 17 minutes to escape a house fire. Today, with the prevalence of synthetic materials in the home, you have two to three minutes to get out. Types of Alarms What you may not know about smoke alarms is that there are two types. The first is the ionization smoke alarm which came out in the 1960s. Ionization smoke detectors are well equipped to sense the very small smoke particles produced by fast-moving, flaming fires such as in a kitchen. In the 1990s, photoelectric-type alarms started coming out and became more popular. Photoelectric smoke detectors are best at detecting large smoke particles from slow, smoldering fires, such as an electrical fire from a short-circuit in the wall. While most smoke alarms sold today are the photoelectric type, Consumer Reports ranked the Kidde and First Alert Dual-Detection alarms (which detects smoke and fire through both ionization and photoelectric means) as the top smoke alarms for people to have in their homes in 2022.  Alarm Placement is Even More Important To comply with NFPA standards, the smoke or CO alarms you install in your home must emit an alarm sound that is at least 85 decibels and not more than 110 decibels. Most smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms sold in the US and Canada are required to put out 85 dB of sound at 10 feet. The goal is that if you are sleeping in your bed in your home, and a smoke alarm is set off, anywhere in the home, you should hear it because, through interconnectivity (smoke alarms connected by wire or wirelessly) the smoke alarm in your bedroom will repeat the sound at 85 dB and you should awake and have time to escape.  As early as 1997, the US Consumer Product Safety Council (USPSC) said that “single station smoke alarms (a smoke alarm that is not interconnected to others) installed in two- or three-level homes may not be sufficient to alert occupants in all areas of the home or cause a delay for some individuals to respond immediately.”  To round out fire protection in your home, it is important to include heat detectors that can interconnect with your smoke alarms. If there is a fire in your attached garage or attic, you will want to know about it right away. Heat detectors look like smoke alarms but detect a fast rise in temperature, or temperatures that exceed 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Here are some other considerations: Alcohol and Smoke/CO Alarms A study published by Michelle Ball and Dorothy Bruck of the School of Psychology noted that “Under benign circumstances, unimpaired adults aged 18 to 64 respond well to smoke alarm signals of 85dB and are at a comparatively low risk for death. However, alcohol ingestion greatly increases fire fatality risk across all age groups. The study found that 65% of fire victims over the past decade that had working smoke alarms were under the influence of alcohol.” Elderly/Hearing Impaired and Smoke/CO Alarms The NFPA has highlighted that older adults are an “at risk group” when it comes to residential fires. The NFPA says, “the majority of fatal fires occur when people are sleeping, and because smoke can put you into a deeper sleep rather than waking you, it’s important to have a mechanical early warning of a fire to ensure that you wake up. If anyone in your household is deaf or if your own hearing is diminished, consider installing a smoke alarm that uses a flashing light or vibration to alert you to a fire emergency.” Children and Smoke/CO Alarms Children ages 2 to 12 typically don’t wake to the sound of a smoke alarm. According to the US Fire Administration, “Children sleep longer than adults and spend more time in slow-wave sleep, a sleep stage that requires the loudest noise to wake someone. This is especially problematic because data show that 31% of people killed in home fires are sleeping at the time of the fire.” Ring® and others make smoke alarm detectors that electronically recognize when smoke alarms are sounding and use inexpensive items such as the Dome® Siren to amplify the alarms. Accepting that the smoke alarm is the single most important item in the home is the first step in a journey to making sure your family and friends can escape in the unlikely event of a fire. Recognizing that it is not a matter of “if, but when” a fire may happen in your home, is the second