On the heels of the NFFF Firefighter Life Safety Summit in St Louis, where the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives were revisited, and on the cusp of the U.S. Fire Administrator’s Summit on Fire Prevention & Control in Emmitsburg, Maryland, we approach Fire Prevention Week 2024 (Oct. 6-12) with renewed vigor. This year’s Fire Prevention Week theme – “Smoke Alarms: Make Them Work for You!” – serves as an opportunity to reengage our communities and reinforce our fire safety messaging.
Not your grandfather’s smoke alarm
We tend to think of smoke alarms as evolving into the mainstream from the 1970s onward. But smoke alarms have actually been around since the 1890s, with the first smoke/heat detector being patented in 1902. Back then, a person experiencing a fire in a home or apartment had a 1 in 10 chance of perishing in that fire. After the introduction of smoke alarms, and later residential sprinklers, the chance that a person will perish in a home fire dropped to approximately 1 in 100.
Today’s smoke alarms come with 10-year sealed lithium batteries, reducing the need to replace batteries every 6 months when you change your clocks. Instead, the entire unit is replaced every 10 years. It is critical, however, that fire departments continue to recognize the “change your clock, change your battery” campaign, as some residents still have smoke alarms with 9V batteries.
The newer smoke alarms offer a variety of features to improve fire safety. There are units with lights and vibrations for hearing-impaired individuals, even units where parents can record their voices to make the alert in place of a wailing alarm. Despite the tremendous progress in early notification, statistically we know that, on average, eight people will die in home fires today.
What can we do?
The NFPA shares three simple actions all residents should be doing now:
- Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each separate sleeping area (like a hallway) and on each level (including the basement) of the home.
- Test smoke alarms once a month by pushing the test button.
- Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old or stop responding when tested.
Fire departments must plant and water the seeds of safety with respect to smoke alarms use in the community. For years we have participated in school-based assemblies that taught students about the importance of these devices. We must renew those face-to-face educational efforts and introduce video messaging on our social media platforms to further spread the word to kids and adults alike. Those efforts include not only smoke alarm installation and maintenance but also escape planning and modern community risk reduction (CRR) strategies for the home.
Lessons from tragedy
I am reminded of the Feb. 21, 2013, quadruple-fatal fire in Glenarden, Maryland. The Price family suffered horribly that day, as a father and three children perished in the fire. The mother and 8-year-old daughter, Tamia, escaped the blaze before the fire department arrived on scene.
At the hospital, Tamia told fire investigators that when fire blocked her way out of the house, she remembered two things firefighters had said at a Fire Prevention Week school assembly:
- Have a second way out of the home
- Close the door to your room
Tamia pulled her mom into a side room, closed the door and went to the window to get out, where neighbors assisted. Tamia and her mom survived that fire because of firefighters like you who made time for education during Fire Prevention Week.
It was devastating for us all to learn through the investigation that a battery-less smoke alarm was found on top of the refrigerator. We were only able to surmise that the low-battery beep or routine cooking smoke led the residents to disable the smoke alarm, and we can only imagine, at this point, what the difference would have been if at least one working smoke alarm had been in the home. Statistically, we know the alarm likely would have given the entire family a much better chance of survival.
| Read next: Out of tragedy, an affirmation that fire prevention messages do work
Embrace the culture
I’m asking every firefighter to embrace CRR culture. It’s important that we recognize this isn’t only about smoke alarms but also about escape planning, residential sprinklers, and myriad other risk reduction topics – electrical use, candles, cooking and gas services, outdoor spaces, creating defensible spaces, etc.
With respect to sprinklers, the NFPA reports that the installation of residential sprinklers can reduce your risk of dying in a fire by 85%. Think about that for a moment. Simply installing sprinklers could take us from a fire death every 3 hours to one every 24 hours. That would be an annual reduction in fire deaths for about 2,550 people! We must keep up the pressure on legislators to implement this simple life safety measure.
In our first 25-year experience in Prince George’s County, Maryland (the first county in the United States to mandate residential sprinklers in new construction, in 1992), we realized a 100% reduction in fire deaths where residential sprinklers were installed, properly working and maintained. Despite that success, only Maryland, Washington D.C., and California have mandatory sprinkler legislation statewide. There are more than 400 local code requirements for sprinklers in other areas, just not statewide efforts. I know all too well how the installation of sprinklers has been under attack by any number of entities (including some within our ranks). My own builder not only didn’t offer sprinklers but refused to allow me to even place pipes in the attic in advance of taking ownership. I installed sprinklers after we moved in. To me, the fight against sprinklers really is criminal, especially when some of our own members are part of the fight.
Fight the right fight
The Maryland fire service has to fight back against attempts to dilute sprinkler legislation every legislative cycle. When I lived and worked there, I participated in the annual state house visits and testimony to protect and strengthen sprinkler legislation. Along with our school visits and other CRR strategies, THIS is the fight we need to continue today.
Don’t your family members, your neighbors and your community deserve the protections that smoke alarms and sprinklers provide? Of course they do! Please use this opportunity to invigorate your crews to visit schools, attend community meetings and connect with the media. Let’s make sure our communities know that we want smoke alarms to work for them!
