Vermont Governor Signs Life-Saving Smoke Detector Bill

June 3, 2008 – Vermont Governor Jim Douglas has signed into law legislation requiring the installation of photoelectric smoke detectors in homes across the state. Support for this life-saving initiative was garnered through testimony from the Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont (PFFV), along with Barre, VT Local 881 and Boston, MA Local 718 fire fighter Jay Fleming.

The law, effective January 1, 2009, will require the installation of photoelectric smoke detectors in newly built single-family dwellings and existing homes that are for sale.

“Unlike the more widely-used ionization detectors, the photoelectrics have been shown to sound earlier in smoldering fires,” says Matt Vinci, president of PFFV. “I know this legislation is going to save citizen and fire fighter lives.”

The campaign to pass legislation in Vermont began after a fire killed a mother and her four children in Barre, Vermont, in 2005. After Barre Local 881 investigated the incident and, found the ionization detector to blame, a hearing was called in the State Senate Economic Housing and General Affairs Committee.

Fleming, a Boston fire fighter who has been researching the topic for 17 years, was called to testify in that hearing and has also helped change building codes in his own state of Massachusetts encouraging the use of photoelectric smoke detectors.

He says, “I hope this legislation in Vermont, as well as code changes that have taken place in my state, will encourage other states to take similar steps and provide an incentive for Congress to investigate why this information -- which has been so convincing in Vermont and Massachusetts -- is ignored in various federal agencies that are supposed to protect the public.”

Photoelectric smoke detectors contain a light source and a light-sensitive electric cell. Smoke entering the detector deflects light onto the light-sensitive electric cell, triggering the alarm. These detectors are more sensitive to large particles given off during smoldering fires – the kind of fires that kill people when they are sleeping.

Ionization smoke detectors have a small amount of americium-241, a radioactive material, and establish a small electric current between two metal plates, which, when disrupted by smoke entering the chamber, sounds the alarm.