Ionization 'Smoke' Alarms "Should Be Replaced"
The World Fire Safety Foundation's Red Alarm Campaign
Are Ionization Smoke Alarms
"The Greatest Success Story in Fire Safety?"
July 2004
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST's technical reports are relied on by Fire Departments and the fire industry around the world.
NIST's 2004 'Performance of Home Smoke Alarms' report claimed:
"...home usage of smoke alarms rose from less than 10% in 1975 to
at least 95% in 2000, while the number of home fires deaths was cut
nearly in half. Thus the home smoke alarm is credited as the greatest
success story in fire safety in the last part of the 20th century..."
NIST's 'Performance of Home Smoke Alarms' Executive Summary
Page xix, paragraph 1 | July 2014
Note: Most smoke alarms installed in homes around the
world up to and since 2000 were ionization alarms.
NIST Technical Note 1455
'Performance of Home Smoke Alarms' NIST Report | July 2004
Dr Vytenis (Vyto) Babrauskas has three university degrees. He was the first person ever
to receive a Ph.D. in Fire Protection Engineering. He conducted fire research at NIST for sixteen years. In March 2009, Dr Babrauskas revealed that claims made in the Executive Summary of NIST's 2004 report about the success of ionization alarms were not supported by the data contained within it.
Alarm Bells Ring for the
Most Common Smoke Detector
In September 2009 Dr Babrauskas appeared on TV Exposing False
Claims in NIST's 2004 Report
December 2014
Ten years after NIST's report, when almost all U.S. (and Australian) homes had been fitted with ionization 'smoke' alarms for over a decade, the American Red Cross revealed these alarming facts:
HOME FIRES: AMERICA'S MOST COMMON DISASTER
Red Cross Helped More People Affected by
Home Fires Than All Other Disasters Combined
June 2014
World Fire Safety Foundation (WFSF) Chairman, Adrian Butler, Standards Australia Committee member, and Australia's leading fire safety expert, David Isaac and world smoke alarm expert, Dean Dennis were interviewed on Beasley Allen Law Firm's 'The Law And You' radio program in Montgomery, Alabama. Three young girls had died in a home fitted with working ionization smoke alarms. The case was settled out of court with a Confidentiality Order to keep the truth about ionization alarms from the public.
October 2014
The American Red Cross launched its Home Fire Preparedness Campaign to "reduce deaths and injuries by as much as 25% over the next five years." Tragically, many Red Cross volunteers are unwittingly installing ionization alarms.
May 2015
The WFSF discovers a media report where Red Cross volunteers were installing installing ionization alarms in Montgomery Alabama. After contacting volunteers, the WFSF found they are unaware of life-threatening defects and litigation concerns when recommending, selling or installing ionization alarms.
July - August 2015
The WFSF will launch its Red Cross Alarm Campaign across Ohio, New York, Alabama and California.
'The Law & You' Radio Interview
Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.A.
Beasley Allen Law Firm interview after Confidentiality Order placed on smoke alarm campaigners | June 2014
The inspiration for the Foundation's
Red Cross Alarm Campaign
a) Watch a Trailer
Australia/New Zealand | 84 seconds
U.S.A./Canada | 73 seconds
Renowned U.S. Fire Chief Warns
Ionization Alarms Should be Banned
Sounding The Alarm - Serious Safety Issue
with the Most Common Type of Smoke Detector
Chief Marc McGinn, 'Today Tonight' National T.V. Excerpt
Sydney Australia | 08 June 2011 | Full Report: 5:17
Jeff Rossen, NBC's News Investigation T.V. Excerpt
New York, U.S.A. | Oct 2012 | Full Report 4:02
1:01 "This is not about recommending one over the other. It's about
denouncing. It's about recall. It's about banning the ionization
technology and only having the photoelectric technology."
0:11 "The problem is, as you're about to see, even when the
deadliest fires erupt, they may not deliver the warning
needed to save lives."
b) Hear the Interview: | 10 minutes, 44 seconds
ABC - WFSF | Smoke Alarm Campaign Interview | 25 May 2015
c) Stage 1: Queensland
"The world is a dangerous
place to live; not because
of the people who are evil,
but because of the people
who do nothing about it."
Albert Einstein
"Ignorance, allied with..
power, is the most.. ferocious enemy..
justice can have."
James A Baldwin
"The only thing..
necessary for the.. triumph of evil is that..
good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke