15/10/2013
1
Smoke Alarms:
How safe are our
children ?
Your Name
Presentation Title
Background
• Between 2010 and 2013 in Derbyshire 36
people lost there lives in domestic house fires.
• 12 of these were children under the age of
13.
• Over the same period Derbyshire fire service
fitted over 36,000 smoke detectors in
domestic dwellings.
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2
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Presentation Title
11th May 2012
Fatal House Fire Derby
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Presentation Title
Case Study
• Petrol was poured onto the carpet behind the
front door and ignited.
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3
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Presentation Title
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Presentation Title
Case Study
• First 999 call stated the fire was at the front
door and that all six children were in the back
bedroom.
• All of the children were recovered from their
own beds by fire crews.
• 5 children pronounced dead 6th died two days
later.
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4
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Presentation Title
Case Study
• Property was fitted with two hard wired
interlinked optical smoke detectors.
• Philpots stated that the detectors had alerted
them to the fire.
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Presentation Title
Case Study
• Plan was for Michael Philpot to rescue the
children from the rear bedroom via a ladder
which had been placed there the day before.
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5
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Presentation Title
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Case Study
• Fire investigators could not explain why the
children did not respond to the alarms
• Covert recordings suggest that Michael Philpot
could not understand why the children did not
respond to the smoke detectors operating.
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6
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Presentation Title
Case Study
• Remains of both detectors recovered from the
scene.
• Forensic testing of remains suggested
• “No evidence could be found to suggest that
the detectors failed to operate”
• Toxicology tests confirmed
• “Children had not been drugged”
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Presentation Title
Case Study
• No reason could be found for the failure of the
smoke detectors to wake the children.
• Questions were being asked as to what went
wrong.
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7
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Presentation Title
Hypothesis
• Can we find out why the children did not
survive the fire?
• Do children respond from sleep to the sound
of a standard domestic smoke detector?
• Research project with
University of Strathclyde
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Presentation Title
Aim of Study
• Whether or not common smoke detectors
would wake children under the age of 12 from
sleep.
• Whether there were sex or age related
differences in children’s response to smoke
detectors.
• Whether equivalent responses would be
obtained with low frequency smoke detectors.
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8
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Presentation Title
Previous Research
• Bruck (1996) suggested children may not wake
up
• Bruck (1999) also came to the same
conclusion.
• No research carried out in the UK.
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Presentation Title
The Experiment
• Children allowed to go to sleep as normal
• Parents asked to push and hold the test
button for a full minute recording any children
that woke up.
• Each test was repeated 6 times over a two
week period.
• Children were not told of the study until
completion of the last test.
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9
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Presentation Title
Selection Criteria
• Families with children between the age of 5
and 13
• None of the children had any sleep disorders.
• Standard domestic Smoke detectors fitted
within the property.
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Presentation Title
Initial problems
• Parents refused to carry out the tests.
• Fire service confidence that smoke alarms
work.
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10
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Presentation Title
Families Taking Part
Fire Service families
71%
Non-Fire Service families
29%
PROPORTION OF FIRE AND NON-FIRE SERVICE FAMILIES
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Average time to test.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1
Distribution of sleep time to alarm test.
0-60 61-120 121-180 181-240 241-300 301-360 361-420 421-480 481-540 541-600
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11
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Presentation Title
Distance from Detector
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1 2 2.5 2.6 3 3.5 4 4.5 4.6 5 6 8
Nu
mb
er
of
chil
dre
n
Distence from detector in Metres
Number of children
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Presentation Title
Effect of the environment
• Bedroom doors
• Half tests door open Half door closed
– (Robinson 1986)
• Night lights
• 4 children slept with night lights on.
• None awoke to alarm with light on.
• Ambient Noise
• No effect.
– (Kahn 1984)
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12
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Presentation Title
Results (Standard Detector)
• 80% of children, slept through the alarms on
all 6 tests.
• Of the 34 children tested, only 7 (all girls)
woke during any of the individual 6 tests.
• Only 2 girls woke each time that the alarm
was sounded during the individual 6 tests.
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Presentation Title
Low Frequency Detectors
• 6 Boys and 6 Girls who slept through first
study selected.
• All tested 6 separate times with Low
frequency (520hz) Domestic detector.
• 100% of boys never woke up.
• 100% of girls woke up
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13
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Presentation Title
Conclusions
• Results of this study indicate that it is highly
likely that children will not wake to the sound
of a standard domestic smoke detector.
• This improved for girls when tested with a low
frequency (520hz)detector but had no effect
on boys.
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Presentation Title
Advice to Parents
• Don’t panic !!
• Revisit your fire escape plan
• If detector sounds go to the children
15/10/2013
14
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Presentation Title
Dave CossMSc BSc(Hons) FSSSocDip GFireE
Derbyshire Fire and Rescue service
01246 223500
