Fire council releases report on home fire safety inspections

Greenbelt, MD – Home safety inspections conducted in three states found that fewer than 20 percent of homes were adequately covered by functional smoke alarms, according to a report (.pdf file) from the National Volunteer Fire Council.

The inspections, conducted in rural areas of Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Alabama between October 2010 and March 2011, found:

• 86 percent of homes did not have a carbon monoxide detector.
• 22 percent had a fire extinguisher on every level of the home.
• 80 percent did not have a smoke alarm in every bedroom.
• 20 percent had one smoke alarm previously installed; 12 percent did not have a smoke alarm at all.
• 37 percent had at least one non-functioning smoke alarm.
• 5 percent had smoke alarms that were more than 10 years old.

The three states were chosen because of their high fire death rates, according to the report.