Smoke Detectors Vital

Prompted by the deaths of two infants in last month’s fire in a Huntington Beach day-care home where there was no smoke detector, the Legislature quickly passed and Gov. George Deukmejian has signed into law a bill requiring detectors in all licensed day-care homes, regardless of their size.

The new law clears up a senseless inconsistency that required detectors in some day-care facilities and not in others. Firefighters believe that a smoke detector in the Huntington Beach home would have sounded a warning early enough to get all the children out alive.

That is usually the case in most fires, and the Huntington Beach tragedy was but another deadly reminder of the lifesaving protection smoke detectors provide--and of the wisdom of having one in every home.

Despite that record, fire officials say surveys show that from 25% to 50% of the homes in Orange County may not be equipped with smoke detectors.

Even more shocking is the fact that as many as half of the smoke detectors already installed in homes do not work because residents have not bothered to maintain them by simply changing a battery.

That means that as few as one out of every four homes in the county may have an operable smoke detector. That is foolishly flirting with disaster.

The United States leads the world in fire losses and has about twice the fire death rate of other countries. One reason may be the mistaken belief by many people that they will not need smoke detectors.

At least that is what one poll indicated when it asked people why they did not have a smoke detector in their homes. A majority said they did not believe that they would ever have a fire. Ironically, about two out of every three house fires break out in homes without smoke detectors.

In California last year, 236 people died in fires. And a smoke detector can increase the chances of surviving a fire by at least 50%. Those facts should prompt people to install--and maintain--smoke detectors. Not doing so could be a deadly mistake.