Smoke Alarms - Do I Really Need One?

In the USA alone, someone dies as a result of a house fire every 197 minutes. Now that is a pretty shocking statistic. What is perhaps even more worrying, particularly for parents, is that although children aged 5 years and younger make up only 7% of the US population, they account for 12% of the house fire related deaths, meaning they are almost twice as 'at risk' as other age groups. And the statistics also show that while only 25% of house fire occur between 10pm and 6am (that is to say overnight), fires that occur during these hours account for half of the death caused by house fires in the USA.

So that's certainly some food for thought, particularly for those with a household with young children in. What is perhaps more shocking is that, despite these very worrying statistics, not everybody has smoke or fire alarm systems fitted in their homes.

Surveys actually indicate that a large number of Americans admit to questioning whether they're really necessary. The fact is that yes, they are.

If a fire breaks out in your home while you are sleeping, without any form of alarm, you would be at very real risk of sleeping until it was too late to escape. And the simple fact of the matter is that we ALL have hazardous items in our homes that can cause fire, whether it be cigarettes, cookers, heaters, candles or even faulty electrical items. Smoke alarm systems are the only way to guarantee waking up in the early stages of a fire in your home, thus enabling you to utilise an escape route before the entire house is engulfed.

In the United Kingdom, the value of smoke alarms is highlighted by the fact that the fire services provide and fit them cost free in your home on request. In the USA, there is no national provision of alarms cost free, but some fire departments offer them cheaply or even free and so it is worth getting in touch with your own local fire department to enquire. But even though there is no such large scale free distribution in the USA, smoke alarms are available incredibly cheaply (literally from $5).

When it comes to brands, there are literally hundreds. But they all tend to fall into one of two types; ionization alarms and photoelectric alarms. What is the difference? Well, basically, ionization alarms tend to sound more quickly when there are flames and a fairly fast moving fire. Photoelectric alarms, on the other hand, are better equipped and designed for detecting smouldering and smoky fires.

Whichever alarm you get your hands on, read the manufacturer's instructions for fitting them carefully. Place one on every level of your home and in both areas in which you sleep and areas in which you do not sleep. Fire services also remind people to test and replace batteries as necessary in all smoke alarms at least once a month. Units should be replaced in their entirety every 8 - 10 years.

Another warning frequently issued by fire services is not to remove the batteries from your smoke alarm!! That might seem like an almost stupidly obvious statement, but there are reasons behind it! A surprisingly large number of people silence their alarms in this way if the alarm sounds while they are cooking. However, if the alarm goes off (no matter how irritating it is, and we all know it's annoying) that only means good things... it means it is working and doing its job! Some of the newer models of smoke alarm actually have a 'hush' button incorporated to permit silencing of the nuisance false alarms like that.

But whichever model you buy... do buy one! With a death in the USA from a house fire almost every 3 hours, can you really afford not to?