Fitting smoke alarms

At the present time there is no legislation available to us to force people to have smoke detectors fitted to their homes. Building regulations now insist smoke detectors be fitted to all new residential accommodation.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service strongly recommend that you fit at least one smoke alarm to each level of your home.This is the absolute minimum that you should have in your home.

Positioning of smoke alarms

The next question you may have is "where do I put them?".

They should be put in every room except for the kitchen and the bathroom!
The smoke from cooking and steam from hot water can cause "false alarms".
The minimum should be one smoke alarm on each floor level.

What about the average child's bedroom?

It may contain a CD player, computer, television, Playstation, alarm clock and a lamp.
If the detector is outside the room on the landing, and the bedroom door is closed, it will take some time for the smoke from a fire inside the room to get out and reach the detector. And the younger children are the deeper they sleep.
If you have a spare room where no-one sleeps and there are no electrical appliances in that room, then that room is unlikely to have a fire so it may not need a smoke alarm.

Where's best to place them?

Detectors should be sited 30 centimetres from walls and light fittings, this is because light fittings attract dust which can cause false alarms and sometimes smoke doesn't go right into the corner of the ceiling in the early stages of a fire.