Fire alarm safety: Children may sleep through it, so have a plan

By Peggy Revell on June 20, 2018.

prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell

The fire alarm goes off and everyone evacuates — that’s the ideal plan.

However, numerous studies have found that younger children will sleep through traditional fire alarms.

“The important thing though, is mom and dad hearing the alarm,” said Grayson Smith, fire prevention officer with the Medicine Hat Fire Service, on how families can keep sleeping children safe. It’s important to co-ordinate a plan, he said, with parents getting the kids.

“Everything goes back to the smoke detector,” said Smith, and the fire service recommends having an interconnected system less than 10 years old.

Fire alarms older than 10 years have a slower reaction time, said Smith, and are “hit and miss.”

Since 2014, new houses are required to have interconnected fire alarms on all levels and all sleeping areas so all alarms go off if a fire is detected.

Without these sort of alarms, there can be a “rip-roaring fire” before people even know their house is ablaze, said Smith.

Testing the fire alarms on a monthly basis is also recommended, said Smith.

Studies on children sleeping through alarms say they do so because a significant portion of their sleep is in the Stage 2 and REM phase — a difficult phase to wake up from. One 2004 study found that a smoke alarm sounding for up to three minutes at 60 to 75 decibels failed to awaken 85 per cent or more of the pre-adolescent and adolescent subjects.

Some new alarms allow parents to record their voice telling a child to wake up, said Smith, in the hopes this familiar voice will do the trick.

Many children sleep with their doors closed, so Smith recommended having an interconnected fire alarm in the child’s room, or leaving the door open a crack so if a fire starts there, smoke can easily escape and set off an alarm.

Home escape plans — including two ways out of every room and a single meeting point, ideally in the front — are also important.

There’s been cases where a family member is out front and the children are in the backyard, so the parent runs back into the house, said Smith.

“There has been injuries and fatalities throughout history because of people doing that,” he said.

A plan is also only as good as its execution.

“The night to practise your escape plan is not the night your house is on fire,” said Smith, likening the procedure to muscle memory. “The more you do it, the more kids are going to feel comfortable with it.”

An inability to hear a fire alarm isn’t limited to children —seniors and people with disabilities are also at risk. Fire alarms with flashing lights can help with this, said Smith.

“A lot of time with elderly, we really encourage them to have a “go bag” with pills, glasses and shoes, if they need to evacuate,” said Smith.

Smith says the fire department has a program to assist and educate families if their child has a tendency toward fire play or fire starting — encouraging people to contact them about this.

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