Smoke Detectors

In this video NFPA’s Sharon Gamache discusses the latest information on types of smoke alarms you need, their placement and special features.

Family activity – check your smoke alarms!

Download a calendar tearsheet (PDF, 228 KB), and put it in an important place in your home. Remember to have a grown-up test your smoke alarms once a month. Tear off the correct month when the test is finished!

Facts & figures:

• Ninety-six percent of all homes have at least one smoke alarm, according to a 2010 telephone survey. Overall, three-quarters of all U.S. homes have at least one working smoke alarm.

• Almost two-thirds of home fire deaths in 2005-2009 resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.

• When smoke alarms fail to operate, it is usually because batteries are missing, disconnected or dead.  Almost one-quarter of the smoke alarm failures was due to dead batteries.

Source: NFPA’s “Smoke Alarms in U.S. Home Fires”, by Marty Ahrens, September 2011.

Also see: Fact sheet on smoke alarm types, nuisance alarms, and more (PDF, 650 KB)

Also see: Fact sheet on smoke alarms in reported U.S. home fires (PDF, 94 KB)