Fire Alarms use Mother's Voice
Talking Smoke & Fire Alarms are the Newest Way to Keep Kids Safe!f
Ranging in price from $25 to $60, the effectiveness of “talking” fire alarms is still under debate. One of the newest innovations provides a recorder in which a parent can record, in their own voice, an announcement of a fire and instructions for their children to follow in the event of this emergency.
In 2003, Matthew Ferris and Bruce Black, developers of the Kidsmart Vocal Smoke Detector walked away with “Best of Innovations Award” at the International Consumer Electronics Show. By late that same summer, their innovative smoke alarms, using voices, were available in stores for consumers.
A recent study confirmed what Ferris and Black knew all along and expanded on that knowledge; not only will voices wake the children faster, but it seems that mother’s voice is the best voice to use.
Why use a Talking Smoke Detector?
Speaking of traditional alarms, Gary Smith, Director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Columbus Children’s Hospital stated: “Clearly, the strategy that has been tried and true and used for years…fails miserably for children.” Traditional fire alarms have failed to wake children time and time again.
Parents choosing the talking smoke alarm can record their own warning. Smith suggests the following: “(Child’s first name!) Wake up! Get out of bed! Leave the room!”
According to the study published in the journal Pediatrics by Columbus Children’s Hospital, 24 children were used in the study from the ages of 6 to 12. Twenty-three woke to the recorded Mother’s voice, fourteen of the children also woke to the traditional alarm and one child didn’t awaken at all to either.
A sleeping child’s response time went from approximately three minutes with the traditional smoke alarm to approximately 20 seconds with the talking smoke alarm; precious minutes that could perhaps, save lives.
It is important to note that both alarms used had large speakers, measuring about four times louder than sound in standard home alarms.
Resources used for this article include and Associated Press column by JoAnne Viviano and the American Association of Pediatrics website, available at www.aap.org.
