Smoke alarms fail to wake up children in an emergency, study finds

Smoke alarms fail to wake up children in an emergency, a study has found as researchers set upon finding the most effective sound.

More than 80 per cent of children aged between two and 13 did not respond to a standard-issue alarm when it was sounded during the study by Dundee University and Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Boys are less likely to wake up than girls, the research also showed. In the study, only two children out of the 34 tested woke up every time the alarm sounded and none of the 14 boys woke up at all.

Researchers said that the alarms' failure may be because children often sleep more soundly and are not pre-programmed to recognise modern warnings of danger, such as a digital siren. 

To combat this, they are looking for 500 volunteer families to take part in research to find a more effective noise.

The sounds tested will include lower frequency or intermittent beeps combined with a recorded message, such as a woman's voice warning of fire, as children are thought to be more likely to respond to a human warning of danger. 

Prof Niamh NicDaeid

Professor Niamh NicDaeid, of the university's centre for anatomy and human identification, said: "Protecting our children in the event of fire is so fundamentally important that we want to involve parents and their children in expanding this research.

"Most work in the area has been carried out using relatively small numbers of children and usually in sleep laboratories.

"We want to make this much more relevant to the real world and undertake the tests in the familiar environment of the child's home and so we are appealing for volunteers to help us."

Preliminary testing, which used the voice of the parent, found this technique had a 90 per cent success rate.

Dave Coss, a fire investigator and watch commander at Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service, said he started the academic study after six children died in Derby in a blaze started by their parents. 

Mick Philpott was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years after being convicted of manslaughter. His wife Mairead was handed a 17-year sentence.

The youngsters, aged between five and 13, who died from the effects of smoke, were asleep in their beds upstairs when the blaze broke out at the semi-detached house in the early hours.

Mr Coss said: "When we investigated this tragic case we thought the children may have been incapacitated in some way and prevented from getting up, as all were found in their beds."

He said that since toxicology reports were negative, the only other explanation was that the children "did not respond to the smoke detector and just carried on sleeping".