Christmas is one of the happiest times of the year—but it can also be one of the most dangerous. Traditional Christmas trees can actually be a major source of fuel in a house fire, according to the National Fire Protection Association. In the organization’s annual fire department experience survey in 2011-2015, it was shown that Christmas trees were the item first ignited in an estimated average of 200 reported home structure fires per year.
That’s where the Safer Christmas Tree Alarm comes in. It’s designed to look like a regular Christmas ornament, but acts like a fire detector—and can actually save your life.
Here’s how it works: The Christmas tree ornament isn’t a smoke detector—it’s a compact heat sensor that comes with an accompanying alarm that can be placed at the center of high-risk areas, like kitchens, laundry rooms, nurseries, and overloaded outlet areas.
Safer Alarms’s Christmas tree ornament (and all of their other products) are designed to be put in places where fires are most likely to start for a quicker response time. With a traditional smoke detector, you’d have to wait for the smoke to travel all the way up to the ceiling before the alarm sounds—with Safer Alarms products, the alarm will immediately go off once it senses a temperature over 150 degrees.
“There is no fire alarm system that alerts faster and detects at closer proximity, all while eliminating an increase in nuisance alarms. Simply put; faster detection is safer detection,” said Marc Toland, Safer Alarms Founder and CEO, in a press release.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, Christmas tree fires are some of the deadliest of home fires, resulting in one death per 32 occurrences on average, compared to one death per 143 home fires.
Marc Toland founded Safer Alarms after a Christmas-morning fire in his neighborhood took the lives of three children and their grandparents in 2011. Ever since then, he’s been dedicating his life to educating others about fire safety and creating products that will save lives.
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