Smoke Alarms

Properly operating smoke alarms provide essential early warning for families in the event of a fire, giving people additional escape time. Smoke alarms need to be maintained twice a year and replaced every 10 years. Smoke alarms should be installed on every level of a home, in each bedroom, each living area and hallway should have one. Most homes have hardwired interconnected alarms, meaning if one alarm is activated in an area, all alarms in the house will sound an alarm.

In 2009-2013, smoke alarms sounded in more than half (53%) of the home fires reported to U.S. fire departments. Three of every five home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms (38%) or no working smoke alarms (21%). The death rate per 100 reported home fires was more than twice as high in homes that did not have any working smoke alarms (1.18 deaths per 100 fires, either because no smoke alarm was present or an alarm was present but did not operate) as it was in homes with working smoke alarms (.53 per 100 fires).

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 (nuisance alarms were leading reason for disconnected smoke alarms). Dead batteries caused one-quarter (24%) of the smoke alarm failures.

An integrated system of hardwired and/or wireless alarms will provide the best early detection and warning for families. If your home is missing alarms in the recommended locations, we can help with getting your home and alarms up to date with the current safety standards.