- Author
-
Public/Private Fire Safety Council
- Title
- Home Smoke Alarms and Other Fire Detection and Alarm Equipment. White Paper.
- Report
-
White Paper
April 2006
64 p.
- Keywords
-
smoke detectors
|
fire alarm systems
|
fire detection
|
fire departments
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fire statistics
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residential buildings
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building fires
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death
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fire fatalities
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effectiveness
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standardization
|
NFIRS
- Identifiers
- statement of the topic; agnitude of the problem; sidebar: short history of home smoke alarms; factors in effectiveness of smoke alarm strategy; driving usage by marketing vs. standardization; existing community-based programs to increase use or reliability; research and program needs; principal data sources; U.S. residential fire fatalities where smoke a.arms operated; why are people dying in homes that have working smoke alarms?; smoke alarm audibility; predicted effect of new mattress restrictions; available time to escape; measures of effectiveness for program evaluation of home smoke alarm programs; additional material on existing programs
- Abstract
- In 2003, fire departments responded to 388,500 home structure fires in the United States that claimed the lives of an estimated 3,145 people. Working smoke alarms greatly reduce the likelihood of a residential fire-related fatal injury by providing occupants with early warning and giving them additional time to escape. The smoke alarm strategy, therefore, is to achieve universal home use of effective, reliable fire detection/alarm equipment. (A smoke alarm combines the detector and the alarm in a single unit without use of a central panel.) The Public/Private Fire Safety Council prepared this paper as the first of a series of white papers that will outline major strategies for reducing the annual death toll from residential fires, specifically home fires. The Public/Private Fire Safety Council is a 16-member council of federal agencies and non-government organizations, created to develop a coordinated national effort to eliminate residential fire deaths by the year 2020. As highlighted in this white paper, a number of important issues must be addressed to maximize the impact of the smoke alarm strategy on residential fire deaths. Smoke alarms are still missing in 4% of U.S. homes. This group accounts for 39% of reported home fires and nearly half of all the reported home fire deaths. They represent just over 4 million housing units. An estimated 20% of U.S. homes have smoke alarms present but none that are working. Nearly all of this 20% involves dead or missing batteries, as opposed to problems with AC power. Nearly half of the households with non-operational smoke alarms that gave a reason cited nuisance alarms or continuous alarming as the reason for disabling the smoke alarm. They represent roughly 21 million housing units and an estimated thirty million or more smoke alarms. Available research indicates that programs are more successful if smoke alarm distribution is supplemented by direct installation, and combined with supporting education and scheduled follow-up visits. Also important, program evaluations must be designed to refine program features as needed and demonstrate program effectiveness.