Photoelectric-Specific Smoke Alarm Legislation
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The World Fire Safety Foundation
 

LYNDHURST -- Following the lead of Shaker Heights and Chagrin Falls, Lyndhurst City Council March 7 passed legislation requiring the installation of photoelectric smoke detectors in new and newly remodeled houses.

quickly to smoldering fires. Ionization detectors respond more quickly to flaming fires.

The Northeast Ohio Fire Prevention Association recommends the use of photoelectric smoke detectors.

Carroll said the use of photoelectric smoke detectors, under the new law, is mandatory for new and remodeled homes, as homes that now have ionization detectors can continue using them.

Still, he said, “I recommend all homes use photoelectric smoke detectors. They cost a little bit more than ionization detectors, about $5 or $6 more, but they’re safer.”

Carroll said it is now the standard code for new houses that smoke detectors be placed in all sleeping areas, including all bedrooms and hallways that connect bedrooms. Again, he recommends that residents follow this code.

“You can’t have enough smoke detectors,” he said.

Shaker Heights and Chagrin Falls recently passed legislation that also calls for photoelectric smoke detectors in new and newly remodeled homes.

See more Lyndhurst news at cleveland.com/lyndhurst.

Contact Piorkowski at

(216) 986-5862.

Lyndhurst City Council passes law requiring photoelectric smoke detectors in new homes

“They’re (photoelectric smoke detectors) more reliable and better for detecting the kind of fires we see more of today,” Lyndhurst Fire Department Chief Michael Carroll said.

Fire departments, Carroll said, see more fires involving petroleum-based products, such as plastics, today. In the past, when more items around a house were made of wood, that wasn’t the case.

Further, Carroll said of the photoelectric detectors, “They’re less prone to false alarms.”

Carroll said that people frequently remove batteries from older, ionization smoke detectors because steam from a shower or the smoke resulting from burnt toast in a toaster can set them off. People then, he said, forget or neglect replacing the battery or moving the smoke detector to another location within the home.

A photoelectric smoke detector uses light to detect smoke and, according to About.com — Chemistry, respond more

Published: Friday, March 11, 2011, 9:03 AM