Passive Protection

PASSIVE PROTECTION:  THE TROUBLE WITH FIRE ALARMS

Fire alarms provide a passive defense against fire: they alert you to a problem, but they don’t do anything else to contain a fire.

Approximately 14% of fire alarms malfunction during a fire. Many more fail to work because of user error, the batteries have expired, or the device has been disabled to prevent if from going off by accident.  Fire alarms are so sensitive that a little smoke from food cooking on the stove can set them off leading many people to remove the battery in frustration. 
If you forget to replace the battery results could be tragic.

Most home fires happen at night, when people are sleeping.  It can take several minutes for a family to wake up, get dressed and get out of the house when a fire alarm goes off, regardless of the noise.  Those few minutes are all a fire needs to get out of control.  The moment a fire alarm goes off, residents are in a race against the fire and all too often, the fire wins.

In addition, young children are particularly vulnerable to fire.  Children under the age of five typically don’t understand that they need to get out of the house in case of a fire; no matter how often you tell them.  They’ll hide under a bed or in a closet to escape a fire, causing the parents to waste precious minutes looking for them.  They often cannot escape on their own.

The handicapped and elderly are another high-risk group.  They often cannot move quickly without assistance, and may have trouble navigating stairs and fire escapes in the event of an emergency.  Many fire-related deaths involve people with medical conditions who could not move quickly enough to get out on their own.

A fire alarm will make plenty of noise in the case of a fire, but the people in a burning house are on their own.