Carlos Dhunay, security specialist and owner of telcam, a fire safety systems provider, reveals the five ways to detect a fire early so you can act quickly to get yourself to safety and, most importantly, know when it’s not a false alarm.
Recent reports have stated there are nearly 600 suspected homes in North London that are a fire risk with low-rise timber frames, with Barnet Council expected to spend millions on repairing these homes.
According to Gov.uk, from December 2013, there were around 529,000 incidents that the fire services attended in the UK, which had increased by around 12% to 593,000 by the end of December 2023. The UK fire services attended 249,655 false alarms to fires, the largest rolling year figure since December 2011, the false alarms increased by 2.8% compared with the previous year (242,913).
With some homes still being classed as a ‘fire-risk’ in the UK, there needs to be more awareness around what to do at the first signs of a fire.
1. Alarms and Detectors
This may be an obvious one, but many homes don’t have fire alarms or detectors installed. In a study commissioned by Kidde, they surveyed 1,517 parents and found just half of parents with children aged three to 10 have fire alarms installed in their homes. Alarms and detectors are important in alerting you when a fire is happening in your house, especially if it is happening in another room while you’re asleep. It is advised to check your fire alarms weekly to meet British Standard BS 5839 and increase your safety.
2. Smoke appearing in your home
When a fire starts, the smoke will appear and it can rise very quickly in a home, which is why it’s essential to have a fire alarm placed in the center of the ceiling in each room so it can detect the smoke rising and sound an alarm instantly. If you have to move through the house with a lot of smoke to get to safety, fire services advise that you stay low or crawl on the floor in the cleaner air where it’s easier to breathe.
3. Detecting a burning smell
Using all your senses can be valuable when detecting the early signs of a fire. It’s important to act quickly if you smell something burning. Even if you can’t see it, it could start from an everyday object, including portable heaters or even electrical devices left charging on your bed or carpet.
4. Being alert to an electrical fire starting
Around 1,000 domestic fires are ignited each year due to some kind of electrical failure, according to the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI). Therefore, the signs that are important to look out for if a fire is starting are; the electricity circuit keeps tripping causing your electricity to regularly go off in your house, a persistent burning smell which is hard to identify where it’s coming from, some of the switches or electrical outlets are charred or discoloured, and seeing sparks coming from electrical appliances. If you are experiencing these signs without a fire starting, it is advisable to call an electrician to check your appliances are working correctly.
5. Outlets emitting heat
If a fire starts in the house, the temperature can increase quickly. One sign of a fire risk is feeling a lot of heat being released from the outlet we plug our devices into. This can occur from overloading the outlet with too many devices which can cause it to overheat and lead to an electrical fire. If the outlet is too hot to touch then all devices need to be unplugged until it cools down completely.
