Wake-up call as 3 in 4 children sleep through smoke alarms
SMOKe alarms may not be safe enough, as almost threequarters of children sleep through them.
A study of more than 600 children found only 28 per cent wake up to the high-pitched wail of a traditional smoke alarm.
But that figure rises to 77 per cent if children are played a lowerfrequency bleeping alarm, followed by a recorded spoken message.
The research, carried out by the University of Dundee and Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service, was presented on the BBC’s Watchdog last night.
When the programme re-ran the study on eight children under the age of ten, all but one child slept right through a one-minute smoke alarm.
The only child who woke up got out of bed to fetch a teddy before returnpackaging ing and falling asleep again.
The Watchdog test was supervised by fire investigator Dave Coss from Derbyshire Fire and Rescue, who worked on the original study.
he said: ‘The two things that stand out for me are, first of all, the shock, the genuine shock, on the face of the parents when they realise their kids haven’t woken up. Secondly, in a fire situation, time matters.’
The larger study carried out 644 smoke alarm tests on groups of boys and girls aged zero to nine and ten to 16 years old.
They found 72 per cent of children slept through a standard smoke alarm, but that this proportion fell by two-thirds when a voice recording and lowfrequency sound were played. Dundee University Professor Niamh Nic Daéid, co-author of the original study, said: ‘Our research has shown current smoke alarms are not very good at waking up children.
‘We would ask manufacturers of existing alarms to alter their so that they reflect the outcomes of our work.
‘We have now identified an alarm sound which is much more effective at waking children and our next aim is to develop innovative devices which will link to existing smoke alarms to improve fire safety for children.’
A US study published last year found children aged six to 12 were far more likely to wake up to a recording of their mother’s voice than a smoke alarm.
When played a recorded message from their mother, instructing them to ‘wake up’ and ‘leave the room’, almost all did so.
Watch manager Mr Coss said this year he had become interested in failing smoke alarms after investigating incidents where children had died in fires, and had concluded that ‘sound frequency is key’.
Professor Nic Daéid added: ‘Smoke alarms are vital lifesaving tools but manufacturers, fire services, local authorities, regulatory bodies and others with responsibility for fire safety must assert the message that they do not always wake young children and, as such, people must be advised to wake their children if their alarm sounds.’
The Fire Brigades Union has warned standards across Scotland’s fire service are at risk of ‘slipping’ due to budget cuts and wants funding increased.
It comes as figures showed Scotland has seen fires and fire deaths plateau in recent years.
But the number of incidents firefighters responded to rose again this year.
‘Improve fire safety’