More than 15 years ago, the ionization type smoke detector was researched, fire tested, and proven to be defective. Despite the knowledge that when the detector failed, many, especially children would burn to death, the truth was buried. Then new lies were told to cover up the earlier lies. These lies were told again and again until they were perceived as "truths".
Sound impossible? You can't believe it? Read and believe. Here are some quotes of fire officials from years ago; quotes that prove the truth was known but then concealed.
U.S. FIRE ADMINISTRATOR: "We put 50 million smoke detectors in buildings in America in a two year period, and our fire loss and death rate goes up. We're having a little trouble explaining these things." A statement by Gordon Vickery, former head of the U.S. Fire Administration. Source: Fire Engineering, September 1980.
FIRE CHIEF MAGAZINE: "Smoke detectors were an unknown term to 99% of the population 10 years ago. Today, millions of single family dwellings have them, yet there is no reduction in loss of life from fire. This paradox has not been explained." Source: Fire Chief, January 1980.
FIRE CHIEF, CITY OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: "... A startling fact has been disclosed... John C. Gerard, Fire Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department cited national statistics showing battery powered devices have a 50 to 80 percent failure rate." Source: Fire Control Digest, Vol. 6, No. 10, October 1980.
NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION: "Residential fire death rate increases nearly 20% over 1984 residential fire death rate with over 100 million smoke detectors installed in American homes." Source: NFPA Fire Journal, November 1986, Page 44.
THE U.S. NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS: "The problem areas with residential smoke detectors can be divided into three broad categories. These are false alarms, performance and design, and reliability ... minimizing production costs and very large production volumes have increased performance problems, which do not show up until the detector is the field." Source: National Bureau of Standards, Technical Note 973.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS: On December 6, 1974, California State Fire Marshal, Albert E. Hole wrote to Richard G. Bright, Chairman of the NFPA-74 code, protesting the plan to place sole reliance on smoke detectors in the home, removing heat detectors. Here are his words: "As a representative of the I.A.F.C. on this Committee, I must tell you the I.A.F.C. is totally opposed to the present wording and supports my proposed amendment. It is their position that only total coverage provides proper life safety and a determination to accept any less than total coverage should be made by the property owner after he is aware of what he is accepting."
Unfortunately, the public was never informed of the failure rate of the ionization detector. Instead, the fire regulatory propaganda machinery, headed by the National Fire Protection Association, systematically silenced the protesting voices.
The Crusade estimates that more than 40,000 people have so far burned
to death in dwellings in the U.S. when smoke detectors failed to perform.
Prepared by:
Crusade Against Fire Deaths, Inc. April 15, 1994
P.O. Box 196 (916) 721-7700
Citrus Heights, CA 95611-0196 Fax (916) 721-7704
� Copyright 1994, Crusade Against Fire Deaths, Inc.
� 1996 Crusade Against Fire Deaths, Inc.