Best Security Products blog

Often the first clue that a fire has started in a building is the sound of fire alarms or smoke detectors. These alarms give occupants precious minutes to get to safety before the danger of smoke inhalation, flashover or spreading fire become life threatening. Minutes matter in a fire emergency, and that is why it is important to have working fire alarms in all workplaces.

But what if the fire alarms are ignored? The only way fire alarms can save lives is if the alarms are taken seriously. If the fire alarms are dismissed, lives can be lost.

An interesting study performed by iHasco found that in a group setting, people are likely to ignore fire alarms unless someone specifically comes in and tells them to exit the building. In this study, participants did not know they were being studied to determine their reaction to a fire alarm; they thought the study was for something else.

While they were filling out paperwork, a fire alarm sounded and the group ignored the alarm, outside of a little chatter about the alarm. Below is a screenshot from the video by iHasco. The participants you see are hearing the fire alarm, but ignoring it.

(Click the video to view the clip.)

It is not until 2 minutes into the fire alarm that one of the participants gets up to find out what is happening.

In a real emergency, 2 minutes could mean the difference between life and death.

To create a safer work environment for your business, discuss this study with your employees, tenants, etc. Be sure they understand the importance of responding quickly to fire alarms. While there are many false alarms that happen, it is better to be inconvenienced by checking on an alarm that is false than waiting too late to respond to a fire alarm that is signaling a true emergency.

At Best Security Products, we can help you with all commercial and home fire security and safety needs. Give us a call at 1-800–988–2378 sales@bestsecurityproducts.com

It is a common fear many of us share: fire. Whether that fire happens at home or while we are at work or in another location, fire is tragically dangerous. Smoke inhalation, falling debris, being lost in darkness and unable to find an exit and being overcome with toxic gases are all examples of the horrible things that can occur when someone is caught in a fire.

There is good news, however, in the form of a simple act that may save your life: sleeping with your bedroom door closed.

Scott Friedman reports for NBC5 on this new research. We’ve pulled some highlights from the report for you; click the video below to watch the whole thing.

From the video:

Firefighters have long known that a closed door helps keep smoke out, but new research is showing how it also changes the flow of heat and toxic gases in a fire.

According to Underwriters Laboratories Steve Kerber, “If you can’t get out of your house, then the best thing you can possibly do is to get a closed door between you and where the fire is.”

It only takes about 3 minutes for a fire in the lower story of an open floor plan house to fill an upstairs bedroom with smoke – because that bedroom door is open.

The bedroom with a closed door, however, maintains clear air and some visibility.

The closed door also keeps out dangerous heat. While the temperature in a burning hallway can be 600 degrees, the temperature on the other side of a door from the hallway can be as low as 100 degrees.

When the door is opened, however, the room will fill with smoke and the temperature can quickly rise to 150 degrees.

“Even the cheapest, hollow core door may last up to five minutes before fire burns through it. And a solid wood door could last ten minutes or more,” says Scott Friedman.

Watch the video below:

According to Jeff Rossen (Today.com), the smoke detector you are relying on to keep you safe, may not be adequate.

He points out that just because the burning toast in your toaster causes your smoke detector to go off, does not mean that your smoke detector is super sensitive or giving you the protection that you need. The smoke from burning food is different from burning furniture. And in fact, in a real fire, your current smoke detector may not be activated in time to save you.

The most common type of smoke detector, used in 90% of homes, are inexpensive and easy to find and rely on ionization technology. These types of smoke detectors are designed to detect fires with fast flames. However, sometimes the most deadly fires are the smoldering, smoky types of fires, and ionization alarms do not work as well at detecting these fires. They either do not go off at all, or they go off too late.

Don Russell, scientist at Texas A&M has run hundreds of tests, and set up a special test at the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service. After placing 3 of the ionization smoke detectors in a room with a couch, the fire fighters ignited the couch in a smoldering fire.

Even after the room fills with smoke, the detectors do not go off until 36 minutes after the fire begins, and right before the couch is about to burst into flames.

Don Russell says this is way too late. He insists that you wouldn’t be able to get out of the room reliably if this were a real emergency.

The good news is that there is a better smoke detector available, that gives you better warning in these types of fires. It is called the photoelectric smoke detector. In another test, the photoelectric detector activated 17 minutes in with barely any smoke in the room.

Watch the full report by clicking the video below:

The take away message is that to be fully protected in your business or home, it is necessary to have both kinds of smoke detectors: ionization and photo electric.

At Best Security Products, we can help you with all commercial and home fire security and safety needs. Give us a call at 1-800–988–2378 sales@bestsecurityproducts.com