IL Officials Tout New Smoke Detector Law

Sept. 13 -- EDWARDSVILLE, IL -- Don’t wait until New Year’s Eve 2022 to become complaint with the law.

That was message delivered Wednesday at the Edwardsville fire station on the SIUE campus, where local officials gathered to tout a new state law the makes it mandatory to have 10-year smoke detectors in all dwellings.

That law, PA100-0200, goes into effect in 2023, so residents and landlords have plenty of time to purchase the new devices, which contain 10-year sealed batteries.

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According to information provided by the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance, 114 deaths resulted from residential fires in Illinois in 2017. There have already been 90 in 2018.

Most of those deaths, according to the IFSA, were in homes without working smoke detectors.

Since 1988, the Illinois Smoke Detector Act has required all dwellings to have smoke detectors.

The new law, which was backed by 112th District State Representative Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville, catches up with technology.

“It was a really easy decision to be supportive of this law and I’m glad we’re taking the time to educate the public on how to be compliant with the law,” Stuart said.

There are exemptions to the law. Most notable is the one granted to homes built after 1988 that already have hardwired smoke alarms.

Edwardsville Fire Chief Rick Welle recalled the 2012 fire that claimed the lives of SIUE students Lauren Petersen and Lacy Siddall, who lived in a second-floor apartment on Hillsboro which did not have a working smoke detector.

“We don’t want that to happen. It has not happened since 2012 and I would like to think that it would never happen again,” Welle said.

Technology has advanced - for better and worse – making fire detection more sophisticated but also making fires more dangerous.

Welle recalled his start in the fire service in 1981, when rubber coats and rubber gloves were the norm.

Other materials have changed, too.

“Back when I started, when there was a house fire, you maybe had a good 15 to 20 minutes because of the slow burn of the types of materials that were in the house. You didn’t have the synthetic carpeting that you have now that burns at a much faster rate and puts out toxic fumes,” Welle said.

“Fast forward from 1981 to today and you’ve got no more than 5 minutes, from the time the fire breaks out to actually escape from your home, which is why it is even more imperative to have working smoke detectors,” he said.

The older version smoke detectors used simple 9-volt batteries and the public was reminded to change them in the fall and spring, when they changed their clocks to accommodate daylight saving time.

That didn’t always happen.

The 10-year smoke detectors eliminate such problems and when they reach the end of their lives, they let homeowners know.

“Over the years, we have found detectors that were very, very old - batteries not working and they had not been cared for - this eliminates that problem,” Welle said.” When it ends its shelf life, it tells you.”

Edwardsville Deputy Fire Chief James Whiteford touched on the city’s program that has firefighters going into homes at the owner’s request and locating the best locations for smoke detectors and helping install them.

Firefighters also changed batteries regularly, Whiteford said.

“With the new law, that’s going to have an obsolete feature because the detectors themselves will expire when the battery expires - so no more battery changing,” Whiteford said.

Whiteford also said First Alert makes smoke detectors available at no cost to the neediest residents.

Illinois Fire Safety Alliance Executive Director Phil Zaleski said in a written statement the new 10-year alarms, which have hush buttons, will ultimately wind up saving homeowners money.

“While many people deactivate their older model smoke alarms or remove the batteries while cooking, the 10-year model is not a cooking nuisance and has a 15-minute silencer button,” Zaleski wrote. “They are also very affordable with the current retail price being under $20. Also with the long-term 10-year battery alarm, there is no need for battery replacement: saving the average homeowner between $40-$60 in battery costs over the life each alarm.”

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