Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages PL
I moved to the villages in 1999 and have yet to hear that a smoke alarm saved anyone's life. What I have read about in the newspaper is that a lot of people were helped by neighbors who spotted their roof on fire. On rare occasions, a roof will be hit by lightning and the resulting fire doesn't set off any smoke alarm, at least not for a while. It always seems to be neighbors who save the day by warning residents to get out of the burning house.
Has anyone ever heard of a smoke alarm saving a life? I have lived most of my life without a smoke detector, so it seems strange that so much attention is now paid to having a working smoke alarm. 
To put this in perspective, heart attacks are much more common but I don't see any commensurate level of worry. It would be interesting to know how many times greater your chances are of dying from a heart attack.
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Here are a few stories for your consideration, they are from the Internet on fire safety site in New South Wales;
•June 06– at 3.15 am the smoke alarm in a Mayfield house starts to ring. An appliance had caught alight and the fire was fire raging through the kitchen. The smoke alarm wakes a man and his young son who flee from the building. Both are treated for smoke inhalation; they both survive.
•June 06– a mother and her one-year old son are fast asleep when a smoke alarm sounds in their Wetherill Park home. A fire in an air conditioning unit triggers the alarm, which wakes the mother and allows her and her son to escape unharmed.
•June 06 – a person walking their dog in Emu Plains one evening hears the sound of a smoke alarm inside a neighbour's villa. They call Triple Zero. Firefighting crews arrive, conduct a search of the premises and find a 76 year-old resident unconscious in her bedroom. She recovers. Relatives had only checked the smoke alarm in the villa three days prior to the fire. They are extremely happy they did.
•May 06 – two residents of a house in Shoal Bay are asleep in bed and are alerted to the fire raging in the upper storey of their three-storey home by the sound of a smoke alarm. Both escape unharmed.
•May 06– the elderly occupants of a home in Gladesville are fast asleep when a fire begins. The high pitched sound of the smoke alarm wakes them in time to extinguish the flames and escape.
•April 06– a Moss Vale couple is awoken at around midnight to the sound of the smoke alarm and find that their lounge suite on their front porch is on fire. Both escape unharmed. The husband tells the local newspaper: "Without it (the smoke alarm), we wouldn't be standing here."
•April 06– seven-year old twin children are awoken by the sound of a smoke alarm in their home in Koonawarra. They see their fridge is on fire and go and wake their mother and older sister. All escape unharmed.
•April 06– the female occupant of a house in Sadlier is asleep when she is suddenly awoken by the smoke alarm. The kitchen and laundry are ablaze. She survives.
•April 06 – an electrical fire begins in a home in St Andrews. A mother, her daughter and a baby are alerted to the fire by the smoke alarm. All survive.
•April 06– a woman is woken by the beep of the smoke alarm in her home in East Dubbo. She, her husband and three young sons use the home escape plan that they had previously prepared and practised. The husband is quoted in the local newspaper: "There's no other way to say this – if I didn't have a smoke detector put in, I wouldn't be alive, neither would my wife and neither would my kids."
•February 06– neighbours hear a smoke alarm operating in a unit in Bulli and call Triple Zero. Fire crews arrive, enter the premises, and wake the occupant. The fire is traced to the kitchen where food cooking in a griller had ignited. The occupant survives.
•January 06– a mother and her three children are asleep in their home in Lindfield when a bedside lamp in the room of the youngest child catches alight. The piercing sound of the smoke alarm in the hallway wakes the other members of the family. The child is dragged off her bed by her brother and taken to safety. All survive.