New building code for Smoke alarms
From 1^st^November this year, new Building Code rules come into effect around smoke alarms
Mid-winter is peak house fire season. It only takes three minutes for a house fire to claim lives, and good working smoke alarms are essential. More so as New Zealand’s housing density and population grows, and extreme weather events roll in.
From November 1, it will be mandatory for all new homes to have a Type 1 Smoke Alarm System. This system consists of interconnected smoke alarms strategically placed in all bedrooms, living spaces, hallways, and landings on every level of the home, providing early fire alerts to occupants. If one smoke alarm in a room detects a fire, all the smoke alarms in that house will activate and sound an alarm – helping occupants escape. Requiring these alarms in all new builds will go a long way towards protecting families from potential fire hazards.
Previous versions of acceptable solutions and verification methods will no longer be deemed to comply with the Building Code. Builders need to incorporate the new Building Code regulations as soon as possible.
All smoke alarms have a limited-service life of 10 years. After that period, the entire smoke alarm unit must be replaced with a new one.
So the building code is being changed in relation to smoke alarms but nothing is being done about the known fatal risks from burning foam filled furniture.
The Government supposedly took steps to improve New Zealanders safety by making furniture safer and reducing the high levels of toxic smoke it could emit in fires.
The then Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said on 17^th^ July 2019:
Manufacturers and retailers must now find ways to make products safer and a Product Safety Policy Statement (PSPS) has been enacted.
“Simply, we need to make this furniture safer because it is in every home in New Zealand,” Kris Faafoi says.
“About 80% of new and existing household furniture in New Zealand is foam-filled, including lounge suites, some mattresses, and seats. These are highly flammable when ignited and the foam can catch fire at relatively low temperatures, burn quickly and intensely, and emit suffocating poisonous smoke that can spread quickly through a home.
“Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) ran a demonstration for me and I saw first-hand how this foam-filled furniture can play a significant role in domestic fire risk,” Kris Faafoi said.
“The product safety statement we have now enacted is the first step to improving this situation, as currently there is no requirement to inform consumers about the potential fire danger of FFF products or impetus for manufacturers to move to safer foam products. This gives a chance for industry to lead and deliver on this initiative without the need for regulation.
Under the Consumer Guarantees Act one of the guarantees given is that suppliers & manufacturers guarantee that goods will be of acceptable quality.
What is “acceptable quality”?
Acceptable quality means goods:
- Do what they are made to do.
- Are acceptable in appearance and finish.
- Are free from minor defects.
- Are safe and durable.
So acceptable quality includes being safe and durable yet it is well known that memory foam materials can create toxic fumes when ignited/burnt. How can this be seen as being safe, especially in light of the number of deaths that occur each year in house fires in New Zealand.
The Minister in his press release of the 17^th^ July 2019 acknowledged that foam filled furniture had the potential to be extremely dangerous and a significant risk in a house fire yet here we are in 2024 finding that nothing has changed and we need to rely on the new smoke alarm rules providing enough warning in a fire situation to allow people to get out before the toxic fumes from burning foam filled furniture kills them.
In 2003 the New Zealand Safety Council began a campaign to get Ionisation type smoke alarms banned and replaced by Photo Electric type alarms as there was much evidence world-wide that showed ionisation smoke alarms failed to detect smoke from smouldering fires. This was also proved in scientific testing conducted by the Building Research Association of New Zealand.
One leading campaigner in the USA Boston Fire Chief, Jay Fleming stated that Ionization alarms are ‘fire [not smoke] detection devices’ and they allow deadly smoke from smouldering fires to fill your house whilst you sleep blissfully on, breathing in toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide…
OFTEN WITH FATAL CONSEQUENCES!
The Australasian Fire Authorities Council [AFAC] is the peak representative body of all New Zealand and Australian Fire Brigades. On June 1st 2006 AFAC released an official Position Statement. Clause 3.0 states:
“THAT ALL RESIDENTIAL ACCOMMODATION BE FITTED WITH PHOTO-ELECTRIC SMOKE ALARMS”
Yet in November 2007 NZ Fire Service called for tenders for the supply of 50,000 ionization alarms.
Photoelectric smoke detectors are less prone to false alarms than ionisation models and are slightly quicker at detecting slow smouldering fires that tend to produce a lot of smoke. This type of fire tends to originate from upholstery materials or overheated wiring.
“The probability of a fatality due to the failure of the photoelectric detector to detect a smoldering ignition fire is 4.06%. The probability of a fatality due to the failure of an ionization detector to detect a smoldering ignition fire is 55.8%.
It has taken 23 years from the start of our smoke alarm campaign, to see a significant change for the better in relation to smoke alarms.
Are we going to have to wait that long to see action on the known risks of fatality from fires involving foam filled furniture.
We have seen politicians admit to knowledge of the lethal and/or toxic effects from the use of foam filled furniture yet they have still deferred making regulatory decisions on the basis that industry can and will safely self-regulate?
To ensure the safety of our communities and their people, then governments and regulators must show mature leadership.
Given that it has been known since at least 2004 that the burning of foam filled furniture causes the release of toxic fumes that can be lethal in very small doses, and given that self-regulation has demonstrably failed up till now, perhaps that should be our resolution – to regulate that all foam filled furniture be fireproof to a specific temperature point.
“About 80% of new and existing household furniture in New Zealand is foam-filled, including lounge suites, some mattresses, and seats. These are highly flammable when ignited and the foam can catch fire at relatively low temperatures, burn quickly and intensely, and emit suffocating poisonous smoke that can spread quickly through a home.
In my opinion foam filled furniture does not meet the criteria set out in the Consumer Guarantees Act, of acceptable quality, particularly in relation to goods being safe and durable.
Given the known risks from toxic fumes, the failure to take action from industry & suppliers and the failure to meet the criteria for acceptable quality under the Consumer Guarantees Act, it is my opinion that the government should regulate to at least ensure that all foam filled furniture be fireproof to a specific temperature point. Similar to the 2004 legislation passed in the USA in relation to foam filled furniture. Anything less would be tantamount to gambling with people’s safety and possibly their lives.