How safe is your fire alarm? You might think that pushing the test button and hearing the alarm sound confirms that the alarm functions correctly, however this may not be the case. Recently my alarm failed to function in a situation where an alarm should definitely be sounding, where having avoided an encounter with a leaping spider pouncing at me in an attack I was distracted while turning on my cooker hob while I had left plastic containers on one of the rings, having activated this incorrect ring and leaving the room this vapourized into smoke and upon returning to the room I was surprised the alarm had not functioned.
The smoke levels were significant and the heat in the kitchen high enough that any alarm should have functioned as short of there being a fire on the actual alarm burning down the house I cannot see how this alarm could not have functioned by this level of smoke.
So I wonder, are your fire alarms truly safe? Can clicking the test button really ensure that your alarm functions or could some be so poorly designed that they don’t actually detect smoke or a fire and would never sound in a situation where it would save your life, indeed my alarm did not function at a point where it would make preventing a situation which would be beyond salvage would occur and obviously I have no method of testing whether a true house fire which would require the fire brigade would actually even set off the alarm, and would not wish to push the limits by lighting my house on fire.
Could some fire alarm companies be relying on this to create inferior cheap alarms which simply look and sound the part in order to provide you with a sense of security but would never actually save your life in the event of a fire? This is a worrying discovery.