SAN FRANCISCO - Marc McGinn, the fire chief in Albany, Calif., says most smoke alarms in American homes are nearly useless and put residents in danger - so he's on a crusade to get them all swapped out for a cheap, better alternative.
Last month McGinn persuaded the City Council in the small city east of San Francisco to become the first in the nation to require every new building to use the kind of smoke alarm he recommends.
"I don't care how hard I have to stir the pot; this is the most important fire- safety issue of our time," McGinn said.
The issue boils down to the two main types of fire alarms sold in America: ionization alarms and photoelectric alarms. The first type is bad, McGinn says.
The two alarms look nearly identical.
An ionization alarm contains a tiny amount of radioactive material to set up an ionization chamber that creates an electric current. When the current is disturbed by smoke, the alarm sounds. It costs about $10.
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A photoelectric alarm, in contrast, contains a small beam of light. When smoke disturbs the beam, the alarm sounds. It costs about $15.
McGinn - armed with a cluster of independent research - said the ionization alarms are so inferior to the photoelectric alarms that they are "deadly."
Unlike photoelectrics, ionizations were built primarily as flame detectors, he said - and people need warning long before a fire gets to the flame stage.
