Bruck, Dorothy and Thomas, Ian (2011) Community-based research on the effectiveness of the home smoke alarm in waking up children. Fire and Materials, 36 (5/6). pp. 339-348. ISSN 0308-0501 (print), 1099-1018 (online)

Abstract

Smoke alarms are required in many developed countries and are believed to save lives. Although smoke alarms are felt to be especially valuable for waking sleepers, it has been reported [1] that 34% of fire fatalities during the sleeping period occurred despite a working smoke alarm. While some of these fatalities may have been a result of a person being intimate with the fire or their escape being blocked (and thus smoke alarms would have little or no value), some fatalities may have occurred because people had slept through their smoke alarm, or had not been awoken by their alarm quickly enough to have sufficient time to escape.

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