Home fire safety mooted
The Star 06/10/2004

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government is looking into a proposal to require homeowners to install smoke detectors and keep fire extinguishers in their homes as a fire safety measure.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said the ministry would look into “what’s practical and fair.”

“We have not made it (installing smoke detector and keeping fire extinguisher at home) compulsory yet, he said, adding that the ministry however always encouraged homeowners to install fire prevention devices.

Ong holding a launcher, used by firemen to cross a flooded area or river during rescue operations, at the exhibition in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“It’s always good for people to just spend a little more for their own safety and detection,” he told reporters yesterday after opening the inaugural Institution of Fire Engineers International Branch Meet 2004 Conference and Exhibition held here.

Ong said it was alarming when statistics showed that 42% of all fires in the country broke out in homes.

He said studies had shown that people lacked fire safety and prevention awareness, which was one of the major causes of residential fires in the country.

Other causes of such fires included faulty electrical wiring, unattended electrical appliances and children playing with matches and fire.

According to the Institution of Fire Engineers International president William Peterson, who is also the chief fire officer of Plano Fire Department of Texas, smoke detectors were required in every bedroom and every room between the bedrooms and exit from the dwellings in American homes.

“We are also moving towards requiring fire sprinklers in a lot of our residential occupancy particularly the multi-family occupancy where many families live in one building.

“In my own community, 56% of all multi-family occupancy is fully sprinkled in addition to having smoke detectors.”

Peterson said the mandatory installation of smoke detectors in homes had led to a 50% reduction in the number of fire fatalities and losses in the last 20 years.

Malaysia Fire Protection Association president Steven Ooi said smoke-detector installation was also compulsory in Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

“We would recommend that owners of old houses, not just new ones, install smoke detectors which only cost about RM60,” he said.

Ooi added that a household fire safety package comprising a fire extinguisher, a smoke detector and a fire blanket costs about RM100.