- Author
-
Ahrens, M.
- Title
- Smoke Alarms in U.S. Home Fires.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Report
-
NFPA No. USS04,
September 2009,
91 p.
- Keywords
-
fire statistics
|
home fires
|
smoke detectors
|
fire alarm systems
|
residential buildings
|
injuries
|
death
|
apartments
|
wakefulness
|
sensitivity analysis
- Identifiers
- one family dwellings; two family dwellings; home smoke alarm presence and operation; factors in smoke alarm non-operationality; characteristics of victims in fire with and without working smoke alarms; issues of audibility, waking effectivness, sensor technology and smoke alarm age
- Abstract
- Almost all households in the U.S. have at least one smoke alarm, yet in 2003-2006, smoke alarms were present in only two-thirds (69%) of all reported home fires and operated in just under half (47%) of the reported home fires. ("Homes" includes one- and two-family homes, apartments, and manufactured housing.) Forty percent of all home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms, while 23% resulted from homes in which smoke alarms were present but did not operate. The death rate per 100 reported fires was twice as high in homes without a working smoke alarm as it was in home fires with this protection. Hardwired smoke alarms are more reliable than those powered solely by batteries.