Many people still associate house fires with homes that have open fires or households with smokers. While both of these scenarios may be true, every home is at risk of fire.
Although, fewer people smoke and fewer homes have open fires, we now expect much more from our electrics. Hidden electric wires are no longer simply being used to give power to lighting, a TV and some kitchen appliances. Instead, most of our rooms are full of electric devices and appliances. If your home has not been rewired for over 20 years and does not have a modern consumer unit, you are at risk of overloading the electrical circuit which increases the chances of fire.
The newest modern fire risk is charging powerful lithium-ion batteries which can be found in smartphones, laptops, vacuum cleaners and many more devices. These powerful batteries can and do catch fire. They are safe if treated correctly, but can cause a fire if they are overcharged, damaged or exposed to high temperatures. Allianz Insurance states that home insurance claims due to lithium battery fires doubled from 2022 to 2023.
Scotland Requires Interlinked Smoke Alarms in Homes
Unlike standalone detectors that sound only in the room where smoke is first detected, interlinked smoke alarms communicate with one another. When one device senses smoke or heat, it sends a signal to all the others in the network, triggering every alarm to sound. This means a fire in a kitchen or ground-floor living room will alert people upstairs or in distant bedrooms immediately. This system saves lives.
You may think you will have plenty of time to escape a fire or to put it out but that is not always the case. In a BBC article, ‘They are essential’: How smoke detectors are evolving’ a fire alarm saved the life of Liz McConnell when her tumble dryer went on fire.
Fires caused by powerful lithium batteries can happen suddenly, without warning. The BBC article also explains that when an e-bike battery fails, it may not catch fire but it can produce toxic and flammable gases that can explode.
Due to these new fire and explosion risks, smoke and heat alarm manufacturers and developers are looking at ways of improving the current technology. Currently, the best way to protect you and your family from a fire is to ensure you have working smoke and fire alarms in your home.
How Safe Simple Secure Can Help
At Safe Simple Secure, we can supply and install interlinked heat and smoke alarms that comply with the current Scottish legislation.
If you have a business we can design and install an appropriate commercial fire detection system. We are BAFE-accredited to do this work.
We will also be keeping up to date with all new developments in fire prevention and detection systems so that we can offer our clients the best and most appropriate system available on the market.
