Building Control Services

Smoke Detection & Fire Alarms

Why fit a smoke detector?

The danger of fire in the home should not be underrated. Each year in England & Wales about 800 people die as a result of fires in buildings, with 7000 others being injured. A large proportion of these deaths occur in very ordinary domestic homes and could have been avoided if an automatic fire alarm system had been installed making escape possible before it was too late. View more information on Fire Safety.

In most houses the installation of smoke alarms or automatic fire detection and alarm systems can significantly increase the level of safety by automatically giving early warning of a fire and greatly increasing your chances of escape. The longer a fire is undetected the greater the chance of death or injury. A fire that starts at night when the occupants are asleep is very dangerous indeed if not detected at an early stage of development. Some people think that they would be awoken by the smell of smoke. This may or may not happen, but fires involving modern furnishings could well produce poisonous gases in which case you may never wake up. If smoke did awaken you, escape could well be cut off by thick choking smoke.

 

Where should a smoke detector be fitted?

For a two storey dwelling, a single alarm is best sited in the hallway, at ceiling level, above the bottom of the stairway. If this cannot be heard in the bedrooms, a second alarm should be linked to the first and placed on the landing.

An even more effective solution would be to place linked detectors in all rooms where a fire is likely to occur (but not in the kitchen because of the possibility of false alarms).

In a bungalow, one detector should be enough. It should be placed in the hallway between the living and bedroom accommodation, as close to the living accommodation as possible.

 

Types of detector

There are two types of fire detectors on the market:

Heat detectors

– these warn of fire by reacting to increasing temperature around the detector

Smoke detectors

– these give warning by reacting to smoke and fumes drifting from the fire. Smoke detectors will give you warning of most fires at an early stage. They are better for use in the home as heat detectors cannot warn of lethal amounts of smoke and gases and need to get very hot before they operate.

Guidance note on smoke detection & fire alarms (pdf file, opens in new window)