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Mobile Office - 
301 Saint Louis St.
Mobile, AL 36602
877-336-0776
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27075 Marina Rd.
Orange Beach, AL
36561
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Kidde Smoke Detector Lawsuits
Ionization Smoke Detector Lawyers
Mobile, Alabama
We have smoke alarms to protect our property and family from the horrific consequences of a fire that goes undetected for too long a time, but if we are trusting our lives to a faulty smoke detector, our false security can lead to a horrible death. Of all the defective products we might bring into our home, smoke alarms could be the worst. Smoke alarms are a product in which we put our trust, and if a company sells faulty smoke alarms they are abusing our trust and lining their pockets with the ashes of the dead.
Statistics show that 85% of people killed in fires lived in homes without smoke detectors. To play it safe, we install smoke detectors in all the places recommended by the United States Fire Administration (USFA), hoping to protect our families and ourselves from injury or death. However, those people trusting their lives to Kidde ionization fire alarms are in danger as the new design is equally faulty.
Since 2001, Alabama has ranked in the top five states for fire fatalities. The state's plan to reduce fire fatalities includes the installation of over a thousand smoke detectors as part of the Smoke Alarm Initiative, but if these detectors are faulty, what good will it serve?
How did Kidde smoke detectors fail?
Ionization smoke detectors are designed to detect heat not smoke. These smoke detectors are marketed by Kidde and other manufacturers as "smoke detectors." Ionization technology detects fast flaming fires that give off little smoke. Ionization technology does not respond fast or at all to slow smoldering, smoky fires which are the most common types of residential fires. Examples of these types of fires are kitchen fires, grease fires, or electrical fires. The best type of technology to detect these common types of household fires is photoelectric. This type of technology is faster at responding to slow smoldering, smoky fires.
There have been numerous injuries and deaths that could have been prevented had these ionization smoke detectors been properly designed and marketed.
Long & Waite is currently representing a family who lost three family members when their Kidde ionization smoke detector failed to sound during the course of an electrical fire that occurred at the family residence.
Precautions
In addition to installing photoelectric smoke detectors on every level of your home, both inside and outside bedrooms, homeowners should take the following precautions against fire, according to the USFA:
- Plan an escape route
- Have fire extinguishers near cooking areas
- Consider installing fire sprinklers
- Clean fireplaces regularly to prevent creosote buildup
- Monitor space heaters and candles and keep them away from curtains and other flammable materials
If someone close to you suffered in a fatal fire because of a defective Kidde smoke detector / Ionization smoke detector , please call or email our defective products attorneys today to get in touch with an experienced product liability lawyer at Long & Waite, P.C. in Mobile and Baldwin County, Alabama.
