My 26 years of experience in conducting educational programs on fire safety for individual families has convinced me that perhaps the single biggest problem with home fire safety today is the fact that people are simply not getting what they think they are getting from their smoke alarms.
As most of us know, home fire protection in the U.S. is semi-regulated. In other words, we have fire codes that must be adhered to. Of course these can vary somewhat depending on your state, city or municipality, but they are all regulated to some extent; usually through new home construction.
Unfortunately these codes by and large represent the minimum recommendations that are necessary for life safety and life safety is the only reason we have fire alarms, right? I mean, you didn't buy your alarms because they look good on your ceiling did you? If you are like most families, you have them for one of two reasons; they came with your home or you were concerned about life safety. So are you getting what you thought?
Before we go further, let me put this in perspective by asking you a few questions: If you knew you were going to have a fire in your home tonight, would you want your home up to the latest fire codes? You said yes, didn't you? Here is the next question; If you knew you were going to have a fire in your home tonight, would you be satisfied with the minimum protection for your family? Of course, that is a ridiculous question, but I point that out because today's codes are only minimum protection.
Listen to what is says on page 252 in the 2010 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, Section A.29.1.1; Chapter 29 does not attempt to cover all the equipment, methods or requirements that are necessary or advantageous for the protection of lives and property from fire. NFPA 72 is a minimum code.
In an article written in Fire Journal, Wayne Moore, P.E, FSFPE wrote some incredibly educational material that should be required reading for everyone considering fire protection for their family. He said, I often wonder if the minimum requirements of codes and standards have become the acceptable boundaries of quality work in today's competitive marketplace. He then comments on the fact that most contracts in homes and businesses today are awarded to the lowest bidder, which leads the contractor to doing only the minimum and not addressing quality. Later in the article, Moore stated, Unfortunately, the minimum level represents the least a property owner should provide, not the most. As Americans, we've developed the attitude that cheaper is better, ignoring the adage that you get what you pay for. Owners who insist on awarding projects solely to the lowest bidder inevitably pay more to service their fire protection systems. And they rarely get the protection they think they are getting when they act on such shortsighted thinking.
This problem is compounded when you are talking about life safety over property. The latest NFPA code book goes in depth about what homeowners should consider for complete protection, but this in unknown or overlooked to most individuals and contractors and even to many officials.
The minimum protection today is a smoke detector outside each separate sleeping area, one per floor and in each bedroom. If this is what you have in your home, then you may think you have great protection, but in fact you have the minimum. And as Wayne Moore mentioned in his article, this still does not address quality. Most homes today are equipped with ionization smoke detectors only, which are the cheapest you can buy and proven to be the poorest responding to the common smoldering type of fire.
If you read further in the codes, you will find that what is recommended is to have smoke detectors in every room that we can (you should not locate smoke detectors in or near kitchens or bathrooms, garages, attics, some utility areas, near ceiling fans and more) and heat detectors in most areas, but especially where you can't put smoke detectors.
So what level of protection do you have in your home? More importantly, what level of protection do you want? For more information about Home Fire Protection go to www.detechfiresensetechnologies.com