www.iaset.us editor@iaset.us ROLE OF SMOKE ALARMS IN FIRE DISASTER PREVENTION MANAGEMENT FOR HOMES Robert M. Brooks Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA ABSTRACT Smoke alarms play an important role in a fire disaster prevention management program. The objective of this paper is to determine the role of a smoke alarm in the fire disaster management program for homes. 21 volunteers are asked to participate in the survey. They visited 42 homes. From their experience and subjective opinion, the following results are obtained. The fatalities are reduced from 100 to 52when at least one working smoke alarm is present in the home. This is a statistically significant influence. The above conclusion is supported by the following statistical indicators. The p-score, one-tailed t value, and standard deviation are 0.0%, 57.89 and 5.71 respectively. KEYWORDS: Smoke Alarm, Fire Disaster, Prevention Management Article History Received: 20 Mar 2018 | Revised: 23 Mar 2018 | Accepted: 26 Mar 2018 INTRODUCTION As per the American Red Cross fact sheet 1 , nationally, the number of home fires is on the rise in the number of fires increasing 8 percent since 2000. Only 26 percent of families have actually developed and practiced a working Home Fire Escape Plan 1 . Because of the above statistics, a fire disaster prevention management becomes essential in reducing the bad effects. In this management program reducing the number of fatalities due to fires plays an important role. The objective of this paper is to predict the role of smoke alarms in fire disaster prevention management for homes. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS As per reference 2, examples of some of common fire hazards are the following: Deteriorated batteries, cooking appliances, electronic and electrical equipment, unattended cooking, personal ignition sources such as matches, lighters, unprotected combustible storage areas, household appliances, smoking, deteriorated electrical wiring, flammable materials, candles and other open flames, heating appliances, poorly maintained fireplace chimneys, heat generating equipment, equipment that utilizes combustible materials, and overloaded electrical systems 2 . In real life, the list is not limited to the above. Because of space constraints, Electrical Fires and candle safety issues only are elaborated as shown below. These are only examples and not a complete list. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (IJHSS) ISSN(P): 2319-393X; ISSN(E): 2319-3948 Vol. 7, Issue 3, Apr-May 2018; 1-4 © IASET