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Fire Safety
WARNING: Please read carefully and thoroughly.
• NFPA Standard 72 states: Life safety from fire in residential
occupancies is based primarily on early notification to
occupants of the need to escape, followed by the
appropriate egress actions by those occupants. Fire warning
systems for dwelling units are capable of protecting about
half of the occupants in potentially fatal fires. Victims are
often intimate with the fire, too old or young, or physically
or mentally impaired such that they cannot escape even
when warned early enough that escape should be possible.
For these people, other strategies such as protection-in-place
or assisted escape or rescue are necessary.
• Smoke alarms are devices that can provide early warning of
possible fires at a reasonable cost; however, alarms have
sensing limitations. Ionization sensing alarms may detect
invisible fire particles (associated with fast flaming fires)
sooner than photoelectric alarms. Photoelectric sensing
alarms may detect visible fire particles (associated with slow,
smouldering fires) sooner than ionization alarms. Home fires
develop in different ways and are often unpredictable. For
maximum protection, Kidde recommends that both
ionization and photoelectric alarms be installed.
• A battery powered alarm must have a battery of the
specified type, in good condition and installed properly.
• AC powered alarms (without battery backup) will not
operate if the AC power has been cut off, such as by an
electrical fire or an open fuse.
• Smoke alarms must be tested regularly to make sure the
batteries and the alarm circuits are in good operating
condition.
• Smoke alarms cannot provide an alarm if smoke does not
reach the alarm. Therefore, smoke alarms may not sense
fires starting in chimneys, walls, on roofs, on the other side
of a closed door or on a different floor.
• If the alarm is located outside the bedroom or on a different
floor, it may not wake up a sound sleeper.
• The use of alcohol or drugs may also impair one's ability to
hear the smoke alarm. For maximum protection, a smoke
alarm should be installed in each sleeping area on every
level of a home.
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