- Author
- Ahrens, M.
- Title
- U.S. Experience With Smoke Alarms and Other Fire Detection/Alarm Equipment.
- Keywords
- smoke detectors | fire detection | fire detectors | home fires | NFIRS | smoke spread | fire statistics | false alarms
- Identifiers
- home smoke alarms; non-home fire detection
- Abstract
- Two-fifths of reported home fires occur in the small number of homes with no smoke alarms. As of 2004, 24 of every 25 (96%) U.S. homes with telephones had at least one smoke alarm. However, four of every ten home fires reported to U.S. fire departments still occurred in the now small share of homes without these devices. In one-quarter of reported fires in smoke alarm-equipped homes, the devices didn't work. Homes with smoke alarms (whether or not the alarms were operational) typically have a death rate that is about 40-50% less than the rate for homes without alarms. In 1999-2001, an average of 70% of home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with either no smoke alarms or in which none of the smoke alarms sounded. If every home had working smoke alarms, U.S. home fire deaths would decrease by an estimated 36%, resulting in an estimated 1,120 lives saved per year. These estimated reductions were based on 1999-2001 averages. In 1992, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) sent surveyors to people's homes to find out how common smoke alarms were and what portion of these devices were working in the general population's homes. In one of every five homes that had at least one smoke alarm installed, not a single one was working. This is a smaller share than what is seen in homes with reported fires, but it is still too high. Including homes without smoke alarms and homes with only non-working alarms, one-quarter of U.S. households do not have the protection of even one working smoke alarm.