How many fire alarms in a house

[diamond4u]

How many fire alarms should we have in a house. My parents house has a fire alarm in every single room in the house, hallways and the kitchen. However we've been told by my annoying bil that you only require 2 in the house, one in the downstairs hallway and one upstairs. How does that make sense. So if we have a fire at the back of our house, we will wait for that to reach the hallway til we are aware of it? Or what if there's a fire inside one of the closed rooms, it would take a long while for it to reach the hallway alarm

I say annoying bil because he thinks he's such a know it all, but I did google it and google seems to suggest the same 🙄

10

We have mains ones in all downstairs rooms and upstairs landing. I think the ones in individual rooms are maybe less sensitive, so the one in the kitchen does not go off every time there is a little bit of smoke, for example.

I have one downstairs just outside the kitchen (so mainly avoids the burnt toast issue but goes off if you Really burn it). One on the upstairs landing and one in the room with the boiler in.

I don't know if they do it everywhere but our local fire service offer what they call a 'safe and well' visit. These are free of charge. They provide advice on things like this and where to have a carbon monoxide detector as well as helping you put together an escape plan for your property. They are more than happy to attend whether you rent or own

Every room plus hallway, landing, airing cupboard and conservatory. Also a CO2 alarm in the kitchen. We had a big fire a couple of years ago.

.... and the attic as the boiler is now there.

Oh jeez. We have one at the bottom of the stairs by the kitchen door. No CO alarms either. Should really get that sorted before baby is born.

I have one in every room except bathrooms and two carbon monoxide alarms, one upstairs and one downstairs. We also have fire drills quite often. I'm terrified of a possible fire.

Steam can absolutely set off a smoke alarm.

We always had 3 in the hallway(one for each floor), 1 in every room except the kitchen and bathrooms.
When we lost our kitchen to an electrical fault the dog woke dh up before the smoke hit the alarms. He was out of the door before they went off.
The fire brigade said that the closed door saved him by containing the fire so I would advise you close doors wherever possible.
Fortunately the rest of us were out(dh was a night worker) and we had an amazing home insurance, I can't recommend lloyds enough who put our home back together.
We are probably overkill on the smoke detectors but I would rather err on the side of caution. Remember to test them regularly (we do every Sunday evening) and change the batteries before they start to go flat. We usually do ours in the week before Christmas, including the batteries in the big Christmas battery shop.

Fire alarms aren't expensive. I'd use as many as you want! We have one in each bedroom, plus one in the hall and the main living area.

We don't have one in the kitchen, though. On one hand, I like not having one there, because it would probably be triggered by any slight smokiness from cooking (as happened with the one my parents used to keep on top of the fridge). But on the other hand, it seems fairly likely for a fire to start in a kitchen.

This has also reminded me that I was intending to put one in our utility room, where the tumble dryer is, because apparently they're a common cause of housefires.

When we moved in, not one alarm worked. We have two smoke alarms. We also have 2 heat alarms (radio linked), one in the garage as we have a freezer, and one in kitchen. I’ve added extra smoke alarm in DDs room above garage with freezer just in case.

@Northernsoullover
Haha I wish!! No, just an old farmhouse but it has some outbuildings that we converted. We are a little paranoid about fires as it's oak framed.

My late father was in the fire service all his life. The point of a fire alarm is to warn you if your means of escape is becoming blocked - by smoke.

So you don't 'need' one in every room.
But I don't think there's anything wrong in having one in every room if it makes you feel safer.

One per floor is the bare minimum, and soon to be below minimum in Scotland. More is better. One in every room all interlinked is the "gold standard", there are types suitable for kitchens and bathrooms.

If a fire starts in an unoccupied closed room it'll have really taken hold by the time enough smoke reaches the hallway. It's that much later you call the fire brigade and could make the difference between some damage and the whole home being gutted.

All fire and rescue services in England ( and probably the other nations) offer a free fire safety check. They help you think about an escape plan too. We need that because I have a bedbound adult DD. Our fire service will break in and come up to her room where we will all be with a duvet against her door! It takes about an hour fir the check and it's really helpful, I'd definitely recommend it

One smoke detector per floor, but it's an unsually small house, so not much difference. The fire service fitted them as far away from the kitchen as physically possible, because they used to go off every time I merely used the oven (and no, I wasn't burning the food!). I suppose it will depend on how large and air tight your rooms are - and maybe how clean your oven is So long as they're not causing false alarms, more will be better.

I have a heat detector in the kitchen, just in case I do have an actual fire in there.

I have one on the landing, one in the hall and a combined smoke and carbon monoxide alarm in the lounge. (The lounge and hall alarms are different types - one is for smouldering fires and one for fast-flaming).

I saw an article a while ago that says fire alarms don't waken children under 10 so you're better getting one near their rooms which use your voice.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/call-change-after-study-finds-16903945.amp

[quote Riverhouse]I saw an article a while ago that says fire alarms don't waken children under 10 so you're better getting one near their rooms which use your voice.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/call-change-after-study-finds-16903945.amp[/quote]
I would prefer my kids to sleep through a smoke alarm. I know where they are. Last thing I want to be doing is to have to search a smoke filled house trying to find where they have hidden because they are scared.

Omg @Riverhouse that is completely true! Never thought of it before, we've had a lot of false alarms due to cooking smoke, and none of my children ever woke up considering it's in their rooms, we would always say it's surprising they didn't wake seen as it's ever so loud

@Sooverthemill I don't think they do that anymore, when I moved to my new house I enquired about it and was told they no longer do it

I have one in each bedroom. I done a fire safety course with work they mentioned many more fires start in bedrooms with all the tech one each in hall and landing.
I'm fire safety conscious.

Do you mean smoke detectors? They're not the same thing as fire alarms.

Hall, landing, main habitable room & escape routes, CO detector wherever there’s a gas/solid fuel appliance and a heat detector in the kitchen. How many depends on the size of your house!