There are some products that are sold to the public that require utmost good faith on the part of the manufacturer and the government regulator. These products are unique in that a malfunction may lead directly to serious injury or death. Unfortunately, the manufacturers of a fire detecting device called an ionization smoke detector betrayed the public and sold a fire detector that routinely fails to detect fire.
The selling of that dangerous device, was, of itself an incredible corruption. But, that's only half the story. The second part is that government regulators ran fire tests and discovered that the manufacturers had provided fallacious information about the way the device worked... and would not work. But, instead of revealing this deadly fraud to the public, the government researchers rigged the fire tests to provide false data so as to conceal the dangerous nature of the smoke detector.
EARLY DETECTION, THE KEY TO FIRE SURVIVAL
Most home fires initiate in the kitchen. But more people are killed by fires that originate in the living room. Why? The simple answer is most kitchen fires are cooking related, and usually an awake person will discover the fire early, while it is still easy to control it, or escape.
In contrast, the fire that originates in the living room often occurs during the sleeping hours and therefore is likely to grow large and deadly before it is discovered.
This illustrates two basics relative to fire, which are:
EASY to kill the fire.
2. When fire is not discovered early, it is EASY for the fire to kill the people.
A FAILED FIRE DETECTOR IS A KILLER
When asleep, the senses are "turned off." Therefore, conditions that might normally be noticed, may not arouse a sleeping person and/or the pet. When a smoke detector fails to sound at night, probably someone is going to die.
Surprisingly, even when a house is occupied, fire will often grow to killing size undetected. For example, many times a child playing with matches in a bedroom has set fire to bedding or curtains, and then has hidden in the closet, fearing punishment. Then the smoke detector is likely to fail to warn until saving the child is impossible.
The devious people who are responsible for that child's death have tried to avoid legal liability for their crimes by warning the parents (in fine print that no one reads) that the device may not warn of virtually all types of fires, including kids playing with matches.
Up to 85 million homes in America are equipped with defective and/or inadequate fire protection. But, because these devices do respond well to toasting bread, those who are endangered take no further precautions. They assume that if the device frequently false alarms, it is sure to detect a real fire. Also, because their local fire chief has been promoting the device, people assume it will work when needed.
There are five primary reasons why the ionization-type smoke detector will fail to sound early, or not at all, thus leading to deaths and/or injuries. These fire failure modes are explained below.
IONIZATION DETECTOR DOES NOT DETECT VISIBLE SMOKE
A new ionization type smoke detector, when equipped with a fresh battery, will fail to detect cold smoke from a smoldering fire. In other words, this smoke detector usually will not detect a cigarette ignited sofa or bedding fire that will slowly fill the home with dense smoke and carbon monoxide.
Failure Mode No. 1 is the failure to detect the very low heat and/or smoldering fire.
FAILURE TO DETECT A FLAMING FIRE
The hot flaming fire usually will produce the sub micron size particulates needed to trip the ionization type detector. There's a catch, however. On the way to the smoke detector, these minute invisible particles tend to coagulate into large visible smoke. By the time the combustion products reach the detector, the smoke may have cooled and be of the "wrong type" to make it work.
Failure Mode No. 2 is the failure to detect the high energy fire because the detector is remote from the fire.
A FLAMING FIRE MAY RAPIDLY DESTROY THE SMOKE DETECTOR
Gordon Damant, the well respected Director of the California Bureau of Home Furnishings, ran fire tests of Christmas trees, so as to evaluate the speed by which an aged tree would burn in a home.
During some of the burns, new ionization smoke detectors were installed. Although the devices sounded, they operated for only three to four seconds before the high temperatures caused malfunctions. His conclusion: A sleeping person might be awakened, but once awake the sound would already be stilled, and therefore that person may well be unaware of the danger.
I find it ironic that a device installed to protect life from fire is
almost instantaneously rendered useless by the type of fire that poses the
greatest threat to life, the very hot, fast spreading, flaming fire.
Failure Mode No. 3 is the very rapid damage to and silencing of the device due to the high temperatures caused by the fire.
SMOKE DETECTOR PERFORMANCE DECAY
When the ion detector is installed in the home, it is pre-set to operate under a prescribed set of conditions. It is set to be not too sensitive. Otherwise, it would false alarm excessively. It is also set to be not too insensitive. Otherwise, it would not detect a real fire.
Unfortunately, the sensitivity of an ion detector changes with time. The older the detector, the more likely it will wander away from its initial setting.
Failure Mode No. 4 is the failure to detect fire because the detector has aged, and has become erratic or inoperable.
WHEN THE DETECTOR MUST BE DISARMED
When a smoke detector becomes an excessive nuisance (by consistently false alarming for seemingly no reason), and a man takes a broom handle and whacks that annoyance off the ceiling, should we blame him?
I say that the lion's share of the fault for any fire death that occurs must be assigned to the manufacturer of the device, if that device is of inferior quality, and likely to become a nuisance soon after it is installed.
Failure Mode No. 5 is an intentional deactivation due to excessive and intolerable false alarming.
FALSE PERFORMANCE CLAIMS BEGET FALSE FIRE REGULATIONS
When the manufacturers provided false information to fire officials, and thus won them over to promote a most inadequate solution to fire, they set in motion fire regulations and programs that essentially prevented adequate protection from being marketed to the public. Indeed, when business organizations sold better quality and more complete fire detection systems to homeowners, many fire officials actually attacked these businessmen, accusing them of selling non standard protection to the public.
Tonight, parents across this nation will tuck their young children into bed, assuming that if a fire occurs they will receive an early warning, which will allow reasonable time to rescue the children, and survive. But, in truth, these trusting parents will be rolling dice with the gods of fire. Unfortunately, the fire gods have been consistent winners in America. P.O. Box 196 Citrus Heights, CA 95611-0196 Phone: (916)721-7700 Fax: (916)721-7704