Caution Urged in Buying Heat Detectors

Sellers of costly heat detectors that are supposed to warn residents about home fires were accused Thursday of employing misleading sales pitches.

Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. John Janzen said the sales people try to convince buyers that heat detectors are more effective than smoke detectors and to do so “scare people to death” with pictures of children killed in fires.

In reality, he said, firefighters consider heat detectors too slow in warning families of fires. Janzen said smoke detectors alert home dwellers more quickly to possible blazes.

Instill Fear, Guilt

“These sales people go into homes and put so much fear and guilt into families that they’re afraid to let them go without buying one of the heat detectors,” Janzen said.

“They stay two hours sometimes, until midnight in some cases, and they show pictures of children who died in fires. Things like that.”

He said the department has received scores of complaints about the sales people.

Recent studies by the Federal Trade Commission and the California Fire Chiefs Assn. show that heat detectors did not alert home dwellers of fire dangers until two minutes after smoke, gas and heat had reached deadly levels, Janzen said.