Tiny tab renders alarms inactive

Failure to remove a tiny plastic tag from the back of smoke alarms before installation could have resulted in a Dunedin home going up in flames, a local fire officer has warned.

Fire risk management officer Mark Bredenbeck sounded the alarm after the near-miss on Anzac Day, when crews were called to a home near the University of Otago to deal with an oven fire.

They arrived to find a large volume of smoke had filled the kitchen, but the installed smoke alarms stayed silent.

A Dunedin home was at risk because whoever installed two smoke alarms in the property failed to remove a small battery isolation tag, like this one, local fire risk management officer Mark Bredenbeck warns. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH

After extinguishing the blaze, firefighters inspected two alarms in the house and found small plastic tags, which disconnected the battery to prevent it draining before installation, had not been removed from either alarm before they were fitted, rendering them useless.

"[Some] smoke alarms have little plastic tags on them, and those little plastic tags are isolating the battery while it's in the box waiting to be sold," he explained.

Some users were "just putting these things up and they're not testing them," and he urged everyone to press the test button immediately after installing a new alarm, and regularly thereafter.

If the occupants of the home were asleep and had not smelled the oven fire, the incident could have had a "very different outcome," he said.

Not all alarms had the tags - some activated immediately after they were screwed into a base plate.

There remained a "lot of people out there who don't have smoke alarms," which were now legally required in all rental properties.

"Landlords have to provide one working long-life photoelectric smoke alarm per level of a house and within 3m of every bedroom. That gives coverage for every person in that house."

Fire and Emergency New Zealand recommended long-life photoelectric smoke alarms, which were better at picking up slow smouldering fires than ionisation alarms.

"For example, a cigarette that's been dropped on a couch which may smoulder for a long period of time. A photoelectric alarm is more likely to pick that sort of fire up before it escalates into something worse," Mr Bredenbeck said.

"Long-life" referred to built-in batteries guaranteed to last 10-years, rather than alarms powered by replaceable 9V batteries that require more regular replacement. For best results, Fenz advised installing an alarm on the ceiling of every bedroom, hallway and living area.

One brand of smoke alarms with the plastic isolation tags and inspected by the Otago Daily Times are Jobmate, a Mitre-10 exclusive brand.

The instructions on the box did not warn customers to remove the plastic isolation tag.

This information was confined to the instruction booklet.

Mitre 10 general manager marketing Jules Lloyd-Jones said the company took concerns about the plastic isolation tags "very seriously".

"We will now be looking at our Jobmate smoke alarm products with battery tabs to see how we can update our outer packaging to make it clearer these tabs must be removed to activate the alarm," she said.