Welcome to 3AW. Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content.

3AW - Fairfax Radio Network

Wednesday May 23, 2012

What we're talking about

Where there's smoke...

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 21 October, 2010 - 4:17 PM

This is going to be difficult because I don’t want to alarm people. But alarm is the operative word.

I want to talk about smoke alarms. The ones that are installed in millions of houses and apartment around Australia. It seems they may not be safe.

The alarms will go off if there are flames. They’ll go off and alert you if there is intense heat but –according to increasing reports from home and abroad – they do not go off when they detect smoke.

PLAY AUDIO: Adrian Butler, Co-founder and Chairman of the World Fire Safety Foundation

And a lot of fire victims are overcome by smoke long before fire reaches them.

As I understand it, most fire alarms, electrical or battery, use an ionisation system. These are the most common ones with a small nuclear wqarning sign on them because they use small amounts of radiation. The ones we should be using are photo-electric alarms.

They 'see' smoke as quickly as the human eye sees smoke.

I received an email overnight which said:

'The World Fire Safety Foundation has been fighting a global campaign to ban the type of smoke alarms in almost every New Zealand and Australian home for over ten years - we are making huge progress in the USA - but gross negligence has halted progress here in Australia as well as in New Zealand'.

Now this is nothing new. I think Ray Martin had something on this on A Current Affair some years ago. But nothing has happened at least not here.

It’s happening overseas. The small state in Vermont in the US has now banned the old smoke alarms.  And in the town of Albany, in California a similar ban has now come in.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle a similar ban is being considered in nearby Palo Alto.

So how safe, how reliable, are the smoke alarms most of us are using? I’ll try to find out next.

Caption this image and WIN

Caption this image from the ACRAs for your chance to win IMAGE: A few of us in here had a laugh at one of the 'outake' images from the night Derryn Hinch was inducted into the Australian Radio Hall Of Fame, so we've decided to run a caption competition.

Blog comments Your Say

  • @ Peter: tests were conducted by a fire brigade who wish to remain anonymous: they did not allow us to film the test. photoelectric and ionization smoke alarms were attached to the ceiling in a test house with smouldering sofa and damp clothes drying next to a bar radiator. In all cases, ALL photoelectrics activated within a few minutes, but after OVER AN HOUR NONE OF THE IONIZATIONS WERE ACTIVATED.

    Neil A Rellik Tuesday 26 October, 2010 - 9:02 AM

  • The World Fire Safety Foundation website says it is privately funded, but do not say where those funds come from. If they want their statements to be believed then they must say who funds them and also ensure that no smoke alarm manufacturers either fund them or are a supporter of them.

    Peter Saturday 23 October, 2010 - 3:35 PM

  • The smoke test they show on their website is misleading because they drop the photelectric smoke detector into the tank thereby pushing smoke past the detector, and whats more the position of the ionising detector at the bottom of the tank is against the installation instructions where they say install on the roof or high wall. Redo the test with the photoelectric at the bottom of the tank and then see how well they work, also retest with the ionising detector attached to the lid. Unless this is done the tests are invalid.

    Peter Saturday 23 October, 2010 - 3:32 PM

  • Just remember todays rooster is tomorrow`s feather duster

    Ross Friday 22 October, 2010 - 11:23 AM

Post a comment * Mandatory fields