15-11-2014, 02:46 PM
Abstracts: According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) website, “In 2010, there were 1,331,500 fires reported in the United States. These fires caused 3,120 civilian deaths, 17,720 civilian injuries, and $11.6 billion in property damage. It is also estimated that in the United States a fire department responds to a fire every 24 seconds ". Looking at these statistics we see that fires in homes and buildings are a part of our daily lives. To solve the problems caused by the fires, several safety measures have been put in to place to reduce the number of fatalities and losses. Some of the commonly used safety devices today are fire alert systems. Many homes and buildings today have a fire alarm system and automatic water flow systems that alert the occupants when there is fire and start the water flow. The fire alarms systems alert the occupants of a building by sounding an alarm which is loud enough for everyone in the building to hear in order to evacuate. These alarm systems are effective only if the fire alarm can be heard; otherwise if no one is near the home or building, the fire or smoke in the building would go unnoticed. The other major problem created by fire is that it takes the fire department a long time to determine which rooms are occupied and which rooms to extinguish the fire first.