Uxbridge deputy fire chief honored for safety research
UXBRIDGE — An Uxbridge firefighter whose research and testing of a particular brand of smoke and carbon monoxide detector led to a national recall of more than 5.1 million detectors will be honored for his efforts at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security's 28th annual Firefighter of the Year Awards ceremony in November.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Secretary Daniel Bennett and state Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey will give out awards to 21 fire departments, including Uxbridge and Uxbridge Deputy Fire Chief Steve Tancrell.
Tancrell will be awarded for his efforts in finding, researching, testing and communicating a problem with a particular smoke detector that would cause it not to work without any type of alert saying it was not working. His efforts began the process that ended with the recall of 5.1 million Kidde Combination Smoke/Carbon Monoxide detectors in the United States and Canada. The detector is model KN-COSM-IB with a manufactured date of June 2004 through December 2010.
It started in 2015, when Tancrell checked a hard-wired Kidde Model KN-COSM1B in a local home and found it not to be working. Tancrell does home inspections for the department when a home in the community is going to be sold and makes it a point to check all detection systems as required under state fire codes.
It was when he did a second inspection two days later and found a similar problem with a Kidde Model KNCOSM-1B that Tancrell began to think there might be some type of problem with the units.
The dual alarm is wired in for AC power and has a battery backup that can be replaced by a homeowner if they suspect it needs to be done, according to Tancrell. The unit also has a chirp alarm warning system for a low battery level and end-ofservice status that can apparently contribute to the problems found with the unit, according Tancrell.
If a homeowner misreads the unit warning sounds or simply decides to change the battery as a precaution, the unit’s detection capabilities can be disabled, he explained.
The discovery of the two defective units, units he failed as part of his inspections, led Tancrell to check other similar units and found the same problem. To make sure there was something not working properly with the units, Tancrell developed his own informal testing box using fumes from a truck and smoke and found that the units with a changed battery did not work..
It appears that changing the battery in the alarm causes the shutdown of the unit’s detection system without additional audible warnings, and Tancrell noted that both of the owners of the initial two units indicated they had changed the battery in their unit.
Uxbridge Fire Chief William Kessler Kessler forwarded the deputy chief’s findings to the State Fire Marshal’s Office, Kidde, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as a next step in addressing the potential failure of the units.
After a period of checks and review by the agencies, a recall of the KN-COSM-1B was put out by Kidde last year.
The units were sold from June 2004 to December 2010 and typically cost between $40 and $65.
The ceremony honoring Tancrell will be held Nov. 21 at Mechanic Hall in Worcester. Other fire department to be recognized include Boston, Braintree, Brockton, Brookline, Cambridge, Can ton , Chicopee, Douglas, Holyoke, Hyannis, Lawrence, Lowe l l , Mansfield, Middleborough, Norwood, Pittsfield, Turners Falls, Walpole, Wellesley and Westwood