Families sought to test new fire alarm sounds

Research to be undertaken as devices do not always wake up children

Hundreds of families across the UK are being sought to take part in a study to test a new fire alarm sound, aimed at specifically waking children.

With the number of deaths falling by around half since the use of fire alarms in homes became widespread, research has shown the devices do not always wake youngsters up.

Scientists at Dundee University and Dave Coss, a fire investigator and watch commander at Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service, are carrying out the study.

More than 500 volunteer families are needed to take part in the research which will involve low frequency, intermittent bleeps combined with a recorded message.

Preliminary testing, which used the voice of the parent, found this technique had a 90% success rate, and it will feature in the newest phase of the study.

Professor Niamh NicDaeid, said: “Protecting our children in the event of fire is so fundamentally important that we want to involve parents and their children in expanding this research.

“Most work in the area has been carried out using relatively small numbers of children and usually in sleep laboratories.

“We want to make this much more relevant to the real world and undertake the tests in the familiar environment of the child’s home and so we are appealing for volunteers to help us.”

Research in 2013 saw sleeping children exposed to the sound of industry-standard smoke detectors inside their homes.

More than 80% of the 34 children aged between 2 and 13 who were tested did not respond to the alarm.

Only two children woke up every time and none of the 14 boys woke up at all.

Mr Coss said he started the academic study after six children died in Derby in a blaze started by their parents.

Mick Philpott was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years after being convicted of manslaughter. His wife, Mairead, was handed a 17-year sentence.

The youngsters, aged between 5 and 13, who died from the effects of smoke, were asleep in their beds upstairs when the blaze broke out at the semi-detached house in the early hours.

Dave Coss told the BBC that since toxicology reports were negative, the only other explanation was that the children “did not respond to the smoke detector and just carried on sleeping”.

Families with children aged between 2 and 16 are needed for the study. For information visit derbys-fire.gov.uk/ keeping-safe/smoke-alarm-study/

Children do not always respond to the sound of a smoke alarm.