By Gary Taylor
Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. — After years of preaching the value of smoke detectors, Warren Sinnott was shocked to learn recently that there may be a flaw in the system.

Maybe shocked isn't a strong enough word.

"It scared the hell out of me," said Sinnott, a fire-protection specialist with the State Fire Marshal's Office, about learning that the tone emitted by many home smoke detectors won't awaken children.

That revelation doesn't diminish the importance of smoke detectors, but it has Sinnott giving new advice to parents.

Minneapolis television station WCCO focused attention on the problem with a 2001 report produced in cooperation with a local fire department, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

Additional studies have confirmed the findings in Minnesota and have shown that smoke detectors allowing parents to record their voices are more efficient.

"They are very, very effective in waking up the children," Sinnott said.

Although those smoke detectors are readily available from Internet sites, a check of Central Florida hardware stores found none that carried them.

In tests of 28 children between 6 and 15, half were not awakened by an 89-decibel smoke alarm, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

When the study looked at 6- to 10-year-olds, the percentage rose to 71.

Many children who did wake up were groggy for several minutes, impairing their ability to make life-saving decisions in an emergency, the NFPA said.

Studies suggest two reasons for children sleeping through the alarms.

First, they sleep very deeply during their developmental stages. Plus, the high frequency of most smoke detectors makes them too easy for children to ignore.

Sinnott said he is particularly concerned about cases where a young person is baby-sitting, falls asleep and is not awakened when a smoke detector sounds.

Smoke detectors need to be in areas of the house where they will awaken adults, and families need to take another look at plans they have established for dealing with a fire.

Many families, for example, conduct fire drills that teach children how to leave their house if an alarm sounds. Then everyone meets at a specific location outside the house.

Sinnott worries that parents will reach that meeting place only to find that their children are still asleep in the house.

He counseled parents to test their smoke detectors at night, while children are sleeping.

Escape planning and smoke alarms remain a vital part of surviving a fire, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.

It notes that fire-related fatalities have been cut in half since residential smoke detectors were introduced in the early 1970s. But while 90 percent of all residences have them, there are no smoke alarms in 42 percent of the residential fires that result in fatalities.
 
Copyright 2007 Sentinel Communications Co.