“Hear the Beep Where You Sleep: Every Bedroom Needs a Working Smoke Alarm”

Every bedroom needs a working smoke alarm. If you didn’t know that, you’re not alone. An online questionnaire distributed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) showed that less than half (42 percent) of approximately 36,000 respondents did not know that a smoke alarm should be installed in each bedroom of the home.

In an effort to better educate the public about this “sleepy” smoke alarm requirement, NFPA – the official sponsor of Fire Prevention Week for more than 90 years – today announced “Hear the Beep Where You Sleep: Every Bedroom Needs a Working Smoke Alarm” as the theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, October 4-10, 2015. NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm Code®, requires a smoke alarm in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home.

“While we’ve long suspected that many people don’t know they need a smoke alarm in each bedroom, the questionnaire we posted last year confirmed those suspicions,” said Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of Outreach and Advocacy. “Fire Prevention Week presents the perfect opportunity to better educate the public about this potentially life-saving message.”

According to NFPA statistics, half of all U.S. home fire deaths occur at night between the hours of 11:00 pm and 7:00 am, when people are most likely to be sleeping. Having a working smoke alarm in the home cuts the risk of dying in a fire in half. These facts underscore the extreme importance of having working smoke alarms in all bedrooms.

“Because fires can happen when people are sleeping, having working smoke alarms in bedrooms is a critical element of home fire safety,” said Carli, who notes that three out of every five U.S. home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms. “Smoke alarms can make the difference between life and death in a fire by alerting people in time to escape safely, but they need to be installed in all the required locations, including all bedrooms, and they need to be working.”