ROCKINGHAM — North Carolina Insurance Commissioner and State Fire Marshal Mike Causey warned fire departments and residents across North Carolina about “concerns” relating to Universal Security Instruments, Inc. smoke alarms.
According to a press release, the current issue with Universal smoke alarms came to the attention of the Office of State Fire Marshal as a result of “reports from fire chiefs and the diligence of the professionals and volunteers installing the alarms.”
The Rockingham Fire Department, which has installed similar smoke detectors since Chief Harold Isler wrote a grant two years ago, said the units in question are not the same products already installed in Rockingham residences.
“These are the ones that we installed,” Isler said, indicating a container of Kidde United Technologies Firex alarms. “And these are the ones that we sent somebody to pick up last week — the Universals. The problem is going to be with these. The people that we’ve already installed for, they’re fine. There’s no recall on them. The recall is going to be on the new ones. We haven’t put any of them in at all. We just want to make sure people know that everybody we’ve already installed for in the district, they’re fine.”
The OSFM regularly partners with local communities and fire departments to ensure residents have fully functional and operational smoke detectors installed, according to the press release. The smoke alarms are provided through a program paid for by the Fire-Safe Cigarette Act for fire prevention and smoke alarm promotion — which has led to more than 21,000 smoke alarms being installed and resulted directly in eight saves in North Carolina.
“Smoke alarms are your first line of protection in the case of a fire,” Causey said in a statement. “We can’t have people risking their lives and property on a faulty product.I am extremely proud of the great work of the folks who work these canvassing events that put in the alarms and happy we continue to protect people inside their homes with properly operating smoke alarms.”
“We installed 300 of these (Firex alarms) in probably the last two years,” said Assistant Fire Chief Vernon McKinnon. “These (Universals) are the ones we picked up last week which have the recall. We’ll hang onto these until they know what’s wrong.”
McKinnon said when the program is active, anyone living in the Rockingham Fire Department district can call and make an appointment to have the free fire alarms professionally installed by the department.
“We usually install two to three, depending on how many bedrooms there are,” he explained. “A lot of times, people that don’t have smoke detectors will call. Or sometimes when we go to fires, if they don’t have smoke detectors, we encourage them to call the fire station and make an appointment with Kristy (Player), the administrative assistant, and then we’ll go out and install them.”
McKinnon added that it only takes about half an hour to install three to four smoke detectors in a home.
“And another good thing with the smoke detectors is they have them for people that can’t hear,” Isler said. “They call them bed shakers, where they actually have a visual light that will start to flash, and it will shake the bed to let them know there is a fire. Out of 300, one of those we installed was a bed shaker. It’s been an outstanding program. Once you go into the district and hit 300 homes with them, that’s a lot. If a smoke detector saves one life, it’s done its job.”
Bob Rosser, of the Causey’s office, said it’s uncertain at this time how widespread the problem is with the Universal alarms.
“It’s kind of hard to describe,” Rosser said. “When they were being installed, people started realizing they weren’t working. Local fire departments were installing them, and they were testing them — and they just weren’t working. Hopefully, it’s just a bad batch of that product, maybe a few boxes. We’ll have to finish testing before they make any recommendations. There are around 3,000 they are aware of that aren’t working. They are looking to replace that product with another smoke alarm.”
Isler said he will await the recommendations of the state before resuming installations, and hopes that will be soon.
“Most of the time, it’s the smoke that gets people in a fire,” he said. “People die long before the flames reach them. It’s a proven fact that working smoke detectors save lives. I’m looking forward to them finding out whatever the issue is with it, because we’ve had a few people call here and there — but since the state recommended the suspension, I’m going to suspend it until they lift that ban. It may be we have to take those 200 units back and they may give us another 200.”
Reach reporter Melonie McLaurin at 910-817-2673.