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Smoke alarms, hearing loss, and children
Aug. 23rd, 2009 09:49 pmPeople who have hearing loss, or sleep very soundly, may not wake up to a smoke alarm.
Someone actually had to have a study to show that children don't all wake up to the sound of a parent's voice telling them to get up.
From here:
"After about four minutes of the blaring alarm, a groggy Mason stumbled from his bedroom into the hallway, but then immediately returned to bed.
Seven minutes into the test Lilly stirs, sits up in her bed, and then goes back to sleep.
"I was shocked," exclaimed Doyle. "I thought for sure both kids would wake up, out of a sound sleep, and be totally confused and not recognize the alarm system and know what it meant."
"I was amazed how sound asleep she was," said Martinez. "There was no movement there, no eye movement until the very end when she started coming to, but by that time our house would have been engulfed."
Fire experts said survivability greatly decreases once three minutes has passed.
"Fire doubles in size every 30 seconds," said Martinez. "So you think about a waste basket fire, or a fire in the kitchen, the fact it doubles in size every 30 seconds -- to fill a room is really just a two to three minute process."
Martinez knows that fact all too well.
"I have to go to plan B, this doesn't really work," he said. "You know the whole purpose of having this alarm system installed in the house -- well it's not just for the kids, but primarily it's for them. We've talked about what to do, to feel the door and check if it's hot. We've reviewed all that stuff, but if they don't wake up it's all a moot point. I've got to do homework and find out what else we can do."
Someone actually had to have a study to show that children don't all wake up to the sound of a parent's voice telling them to get up.
From here:
"After about four minutes of the blaring alarm, a groggy Mason stumbled from his bedroom into the hallway, but then immediately returned to bed.
Seven minutes into the test Lilly stirs, sits up in her bed, and then goes back to sleep.
"I was shocked," exclaimed Doyle. "I thought for sure both kids would wake up, out of a sound sleep, and be totally confused and not recognize the alarm system and know what it meant."
"I was amazed how sound asleep she was," said Martinez. "There was no movement there, no eye movement until the very end when she started coming to, but by that time our house would have been engulfed."
Fire experts said survivability greatly decreases once three minutes has passed.
"Fire doubles in size every 30 seconds," said Martinez. "So you think about a waste basket fire, or a fire in the kitchen, the fact it doubles in size every 30 seconds -- to fill a room is really just a two to three minute process."
Martinez knows that fact all too well.
"I have to go to plan B, this doesn't really work," he said. "You know the whole purpose of having this alarm system installed in the house -- well it's not just for the kids, but primarily it's for them. We've talked about what to do, to feel the door and check if it's hot. We've reviewed all that stuff, but if they don't wake up it's all a moot point. I've got to do homework and find out what else we can do."
