Insider News& Business FIRE LOSS STATISTICS
Fires Report Highlights the Crucial Role of Smoke Detectors
According to “U.S. Fire Loss for 2009,” a newly released report from the Nation- al Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an estimated 3,010 fire-related deaths, including structural fires and outdoor
backup. These should be located outside each sleeping area, on each level, and in each bedroom.” He added information on testing smoke alarms and replacing batteries and pointed out that NFPA rec- ommends monthly testing of residential smoke alarms.
The report also examined the inci- dence of catastrophic, multiple- death fires, assigning 21 of the total 1,348,500 fires to this category. These are “defined as a fire or explosion in a home or apartment with five or more fire-related deaths; or a fire or explo- sion in all other structures, as well as outside of structures (such as wild-
fires occurred in the United States in 2009, representing a decrease of 9.3 percent from 2008. About 85 percent of all fire deaths occurred in the home. Firefighters in the United States responded to 1,348,500 fires, of which 480,500 occurred in structures and 868,000 took place outside of struc- tures. Among structure-related fires, which decreased 6.7 percent from 2008, 377,000 (78 percent) were in residential structures, and 103,500 happened in non-residential structures.
Report author Stephen G. Badger wrote, “Smoke alarms have been proven effective in reducing the risk of death in home fires. The most effective arrange- ment is to use interconnected multiple- station smoke alarms that are supplied by hard-wired AC power with a battery
fires and vehicle fires), that claimed three or more lives,” per the report. According to the report, 2009 had the second-lowest number of such fires in the past 10 years, which occurred principally in structures without functional smoke detectors and alarms. The year may have gotten off to an ominous start with a New Year’s Day fire that killed six people and injured three, but at 103, the number of catastrophic fire-related deaths in 2009 is the lowest ever recorded, NFPA said. The highest incidence of multiple-death fires occurred in residential homes, as it has in previous years. In 2009, there were 10 such fires, nine in single-family homes and one in an apartment building. There were 59 deaths in catastrophic residential multiple-death fires in 2009; 25 were children under six years old. Of the 10 residential structure fires, only one structure had a confirmed operational smoke alarm. Of the six that had information about the pres- ence and functionality of automatic smoke detection equipment, only three structures were equipped. One of those FIRE REPORT continued on page 42
SimplexGrinnell Names New President
Robert F. Chauvin was named president of SimplexGrinnell, Boca Raton, Fla., a Tyco International company.
Chauvin spent 30 years in the life safety industry with Simplex and Sim- plexGrinnell. He has served since 2004 as the company’s vice president of northern operations. He previously served as chief financial officer and also held leadership roles in business planning and marketing. He also serves as vice chairman of the board of directors of the United Way of North Central Massachusetts. ■
The number of 2009 fire-related deaths specifically occurring in residential and
2,695 non-residential structures. *As estimated in NFPA’s “U.S. Fire Loss for 2009” report.
CP-01 Panel Changes Address Dealer Concerns, SIAC Says
The Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) participated in and supported recent changes to the ANSI/SIA CP-01 2010 control panel standard. The CP-01 control panel was designed to decrease false activations as a result of user and system errors. However, some dealers were reluctant to install the original CP-01 panel due to restrictive settings. Through proven CP-01 PANEL continued on page 38
October 2010 17
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