Importance of Smoke Alarms in Homes Research Paper

Importance of raft Alarms in Homes - Research Paper ExampleThis paper will abridgment the signifi fuckce of installing smoke alarms in homes as a means to secure them from risks of potential fires. A fire disaster is a dreaded situation, which can result from gas leaks, short-circuits or overheated appliances. Smoke alarms argon very helpful in considerably reducing the chances of fire hazards in homes. However, there are many brookholds that work neglected to install smoke alarms, despite their life-saving potential and low cost, or retain been careless in maintaining the installed detectors. Like any other battery-operated device, smoke alarms also require regular alimentation to ensure that they are in good operating condition and have sufficient batteries at the cartridge clip of a hazardous situation (UL 2011). Effective and reliable smoke alarms are easily available at reasonably low prices whereas more advanced models can be linked to a security system of rules that au tomatically notifies the fire department. According to a fresh study by the US Fire establishment (USFA), the number of household fires has increased on a year-on-year basis by almost 2%, resulting in an overall loss of over 2,500 lives and 6.5 trillion dollars (USFA 2011). Another research, carried turn out by the National Fire shelter Association (NFPA) has estimated that 96% of all households have a smoke alarm present, but only 70% of these are in working condition. However, from the 400,000 household fires that have been approximately reported, 72% of the deaths were caused by either an unmaintained or missing smoke alarm (NFPA 2011). Most of these fires also cause injuries, which may result in dishonor and other mental effects (Miller et al. 1982). A working smoke alarmdoublesthe chances of survival from a fire (NFPA 2011). The majority of fire hazards take place at night, especially when people are unconscious and may not detect the spreading smoke or fire. Smoke alarms keep that risk pop out by alerting everyone in the household when smoke is detected. It helps the occupants find a safe passage out of their homes, before they become trapped in the fire. Most of the deaths that take place are usually over payable to suffocation from smoke or other gaseous substances, which are invisible to the human eye and can spread rapidly around the house. Hence, without smoke alarms, smoke is likely to go unnoticed, especially during the night, posing a great threat to the occupants of the house (DOS 2007). However, with a functioning smoke detector, the residents can easily discover and sensation if there is smoke spreading in the house and save themselves and their loved ones from possible dangers. Smoke alarms do not prevent fires, but because they provide warnings of small fires, or smokes, that can be easily extinguished, they centralize the number of fires that become serious enough to cause injuries or burns, leading to fatalities. In a recent tragi c incident, a family was using a space heater to heat their house. Their house did not have a smoke alarm installed. Unfortunately, the heater malfunctioned, causing a small local fire, which went unnoticed due to the absence of a smoke alarm. The fire spread rapidly, and in a couple of minutes, the fire had engulfed the house completely, trapping the whole family inside it. Sadly, by the time the fire department arrived at the scene, the family members were critically injured. They were in a flash shifted to a hospital, where three children succumbed to their injuries and passed away. The parents are still recovering