Smoke alarms under fire in realistic test setting
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – According to the National Fire Protection Association, an average of close to 1,000 deaths are caused by fires every year in home with no smoke alarms.
Of the 940 people killed in structure fires, 510 perish yearly in homes where smoke alarms are present but do not function commonly due to a dead battery, the NFPA cites.
Over the past 11 years, the Indianapolis Fire Department has responded to fires in which 114 people died.
Reducing the statistics has remained a priority for fire departments across central Indiana that provide smoke alarms and education through community outreach including the Wayne Township Fire Department.
“It doesn’t get old. We just asked ourselves sometimes whenever we have a tragedy that occurs, ‘have we done enough?’ What we do know is that if people have working smoke alarms in their homes, there’s a really good chance they’re probably going to escape without injury,” Captain Mike Pruitt, spokesman for the department said.
The Wayne Township Fire Department teamed up with WISH-TV to put various styles of smoke alarms to the test.
Firefighters have found studies that show ionization alarms perform best in flames while photoelectric technology activates fastest in slow, smoking fires.
Pruitt and a team of fellow firefighters from Wayne Township constructed a realistic living room setting inside the department’s training tower for testing the two styles and a combination unit featuring both.
Firefighters were stationed in gear outside the controlled setting as Pruitt started a fire to simulate a cigarette butt hidden hazardously on a couch.
The results matched the alarm styles closely, each sounding between 30 and 45 apart over three different trials. The combination unit wailed first every time.
When Pruitt set a flaming fire in a trashcan next to curtains, the ionization alarm went off first but the others followed seconds later.
After testing, Pruitt endorsed combination alarms that are priced slightly higher at retailers.
“We may be talking about $15-20 more that you’re going to have to pay for one of these alarms, so invest the money. It’d be the cheapest investment you ever made versus having a fire with no alarm and the tragic consequences of what that may bring,” Pruitt said.
Firefighters advise placing an alarm in every single room of a home.