Since the 1970s, when inexpensive, highly effective smoke-detector warning devices began to be required for single and multi-family homes, annual U.S. fire deaths were in the 6,000 plus range. Since then, residential fire fatalities have plummeted. Today, government safety regulations require their placement in all homes. In commercial buildings, the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) and IBC (International Building Code) also require placement of fire alarm systems. Reports show that fire fatalities have decreased in all majority occupancy classifications. In 1978, 6,015 fire deaths were reported. In 2012, a new low of 2,855 deaths was reported. By 2022, home fire deaths did again climb 25% to 3,790 civilian fire deaths in the U.S. which still represents an overall reduction of 37% in 44 years. During the same time period, the U.S. population increased by 97 million.
While fire fatality reductions cannot be solely attributed to the use of smoke alarms, many researchers agree that they have contributed to the substantial reductions. Over the years, manufacturers of these devices continued to make advancements in technology designed to reduce fire fatalities. Now, multi-criteria technology, for example, improves smoke alarm performance by detecting both smoldering and flaming fires and by improving resistance to unwanted alarms, without sacrificing the detection performance.
“Today’s single-technology smoke alarms have been on the market for over 30 years and they have performed very well during that time,” explains John Gugliotta – Paul Davis of Boston South, Boston Metro West, and Rhode Island. “However, they have reached their limit in terms of faster detection and rejecting unwanted alarms.” The development of a multi-criteria technology is the result of manufacturers designing a smoke alarm that successfully addresses the two major issues that affect the overall well-being of the consumer: improving detection performance by detecting both smoldering and flaming fires sooner, to provide the occupant the maximum amount of time to react in potentially life threatening situations and improving resistance to unwanted alarms without sacrificing the detection performance.
All newer multi-criteria smoke alarms contain a microprocessor that manages and processes the individual sensor outputs with prescribed algorithms. This process allows all inputs to provide information to the processor, which uses multiple outputs to determine whether there is actual smoke, heat, gasses, or flames produced from a true fire. This process takes a few seconds to either provide occupants with maximum early warning of a true fire, or to conclude that the sensor inputs do not correlate to an actual fire (no alarm is actuated in this case, thus eliminating an unwanted alarm). “Saving time can save lives when it comes to home fires,” says Gugliotta, who adds “the extra cost of a few new multi-criteria alarms can be well worth it.”
As dedicated sponsors of the American Red Cross in 2024, our offices nationwide are actively participating in the Sound the Alarm campaign. We’re volunteering to install free smoke alarms, develop escape plans, and disseminate vital fire safety information to help save lives.