Residential Smoke Detectors

Fire smoke inhalation is the number one cause of death in house fires. Fire burns oxygen. As a fire continues to be active, more oxygen gets removed from the room. Once you start to inhale the smoke, you are not getting enough oxygen to live. Depending on the density and heat of the smoke, it could take between 2 to 10 minutes to fall unconscious and succumb to the smoke.

 

Smoke alarms provide an early warning of a fire, giving people additional escape time.  It’s important to have enough smoke alarms in your home. Fire research has demonstrated that with today’s modern furnishings, fires can spread much more rapidly than in the past when more natural materials were used. Because of this, having a sufficient number of properly located smoke alarms is essential to maximize the amount of available escape time.

 

• In 2009-2013, smoke alarms sounded in more than half (53%) of the home fires reported to U.S. fire departments.

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• Three of every five home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms (38%) or no working smoke alarms (21%). 

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• The death rate per 100 reported home fires was more than twice as high in homes that did not have any working smoke alarms compared to the rate in homes with working smoke alarms (1.18 deaths vs. 0.53 deaths per 100 fires).

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• In fires in which the smoke alarms were present but did not operate, almost half (46%) of the smoke alarms had missing or disconnected batteries.

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• Dead batteries caused one-quarter (24%) of the smoke alarm failures.

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Download full NFPA report: Smoke Alarms in U.S. Home Fires