Many of County’s Homes Still Lack Smoke Detectors

Although smoke detectors have been widely available to the public for at least two decades, from 25% to 50% of Orange County homes may not be equipped with the lifesaving devices, fire officials estimate. And even where smoke detectors are installed, surveys indicate that a startling percentage--nearly half--do not work because people fail to maintain them.

“The problem with smoke detectors is that they can be installed, but if they are not maintained, you really haven’t accomplished much,” said Ed Seits, a fire-prevention engineer with the state fire marshal’s office. “That’s the area we’re putting a lot of attention to now.”

Local fire departments now regularly report whether or not smoke detectors were present after home fires. In virtually all cases where deaths occur--including the recent Huntington Beach day-care-home tragedy in which two babies died in a fire started by a child playing with a cigarette lighter--officials say lives could have been saved had smoke detectors been installed and working properly.

But fire officials said many people still refuse to believe that a fire tragedy can happen to them.

“We are puzzled by it, too,” said Orange County Fire Capt. Ralph Titus, “because most people are scared to death of fires. That we (as a nation) continue to lead the world in fire loss is incredible.”

The United States maintains that world-leader status despite legislation in most parts of the country requiring smoke detectors and other fire-safety mechanisms in homes and apartments.

In California, smoke detectors are required in homes built after 1975 and in those that undergo remodeling or change ownership. State and local laws also require detectors in all apartments and mobile homes.

But there is a large stock of older residential property that is not regulated, and some communities are now attempting to close the gaps.

Huntington Beach, spurred by the June 8 blaze in a licensed day-care home that left two children dead and two other children and their baby-sitter injured, recently passed an ordinance requiring smoke detectors in every home.

San Clemente requires sprinklers and smoke detectors in all homes, and Anaheim recently passed a home-sprinkler law.

But officials concede that such regulations are difficult to enforce.

Huntington Beach officials plan a massive education campaign about the city’s new smoke-detector law through schools, neighborhood canvasses and water-bill mailings. The ordinance, like most such regulations, will be enforced passively, meaning that when the Fire Department responds to any call it will check whether a smoke detector is present, and may issue a warning or a citation.

But authorities do not believe the ordinance will prompt everyone to go out and buy a smoke detector.

“There’s no way you can get 100% compliance,” said Fire Department spokeswoman Martha Werth.

What is needed--and what seems to work, fire officials say--is continued education about fire danger in homes and the effectiveness of smoke detectors and sprinkling systems in saving lives and property.

The United States lags far behind Western Europe and Japan in educating its public about fire safety, and has twice the fire-death rate of other countries.

“It takes perseverance more than anything else, a constant reinforcement,” said Seits. “You can’t just put the message out once and say everybody knows it now.”

Studies show that many people are not aware that:

- Most deaths from home fires occur between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. with people dying from inhaling smoke or poisonous gas before the flames ever reach them.

- Smoking is the leading cause of fatal residential fires.

- Half of those killed in residential fires are the elderly, children, the physically handicapped and the intoxicated.

- Heat from a fire or the smell of smoke will probably not awaken fire victims in time to escape, and even if they are not knocked unconscious by the fumes, their reactions will probably be impaired.

There are basically two kinds of smoke detectors. Photoelectric units sense smoke in the air by shining a light into a small, dark chamber. Smoke reflects the light to a light-sensitive cell, and the alarm is sounded.

Ionization units use a small amount of radioactive material, which smoke disrupts, setting off the alarm.

All smoke detectors sold in the state must be approved after testing by the fire marshal’s office.

Fire officials say the presence of a smoke detector will increase chances of survival by about 50%. Add a sprinkler and your odds increase to nearly 90%.

Paradoxically, people who do not equip their homes with smoke detectors are the ones most likely to have fires, authorities said. A 1982 poll asked people why they did not have detectors and a majority said they did not believe they would ever have a fire. In a 1986 nationwide survey, two-thirds of all fires occurred in homes without a smoke detector.

Authorities are still not certain what behavior traits link fire-prone people and are hard pressed to explain their apparent lack of concern.

“In general, when you talk about fire safety, the last to get new innovations are the ones who need it most,” said John Hall, director of fire analysis and research for the National Fire Prevention Assn., a private, nonprofit, public-safety group based in Quincy, Mass.

Also indicative of the public’s split personality when it comes to fire safety is the fact that from one-third to one-half of smoke detectors in homes are not operable, usually because batteries have run down or have not been installed.

And even in homes with working detectors, many families have never taken the time to figure out what they will do if a fire occurs, said Hall.

Do you go out the way you always go out? Do you know where other family members will be? Do you stop to pick up valuables? Such decisions may waste whatever advance warning a smoke detector affords, Hall said.

Still, there is hope in recent nationwide trends, Hall said. For example, it is estimated that in 1987 nearly 82% of homes in the country were equipped with smoke detectors, up from 75% just a year before.

Studies also indicate that the percentage of inoperable home smoke detectors has leveled off.

In California, deaths from fires declined from 307 in 1987 to 236 in 1988, according to the state fire marshal. That office has just begun to implement a new fire-reporting system that includes specific and detailed information about the presence--or absence--of smoke detectors in residential fires, Seits said.

The International Assn. of Fire Chiefs is about to embark on a fire-safety campaign with a leading battery company that is intended to get people to regularly check smoke-detector batteries.

And local fire officials said they hope that tragedies like the recent one in Huntington Beach will lead to more stringent legislation, requiring both smoke detectors and sprinkling systems in all homes.

But many officials said there will continue to remain a small core who will not be moved by education, legislation or tragic accounts. “We continue to educate,” Titus said. “However, the apathetic ones will typically need a significant emotional event to occur, like the death of a loved one, before they will protect themselves.”

SMOKE DETECTORS

Most deaths from fire in the home occur between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. with people dying from smoke or poisonous gas inhalation before the flames ever reach them. Battery or eletric smoke detectors sell retail from $8 and up. Typically smoke detectors are placed on the ceiling in a hall outside the bedroom(s), and away from the kitchen or heating ducts. In two story homes one is usually placed as described above, and a second one upstairs in a hall outside the bedroom(s).

The smoke detector contains a chamber in which a low electric current flows through the air. Smoke particles entering the chamber increase its electrical resistance so that less current flows. A microchip responds to the drop in current by activating the alarm.

HOW THEY WORK The smoke detector contains a chamber in which a low electric current flows through the air. Smoke particles entering the chamber increase its electrical resistance so that less current flows. A microchip responds to the drop in current by activating the alarm.

Source: The Way Things Work, David Macaulay