Other countries use less flammable materials in their construction. Wood frame construction is very common in the US due to drastically lower cost of wood vs block. We also had something called balloon frame construction for many years which made it much more likely for fire to travel within the walls. That being said not having detectors isn’t a great idea either since most are combo smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Comment on YSK Your smoke detectors should be replaced every 7-10 years
hubobes@piefed.europe.pub 2 days ago
Living in a country where smoke detectors basically don’t exist and house fires are extremely rare (rare, not nonexistent, we had a pretty terrible fire in a bar on silvester) I always wonder if we are just stupid for not having them or why there are so many in places like the USA.
h3ll3rsh4nks@ani.social 2 days ago
Canconda@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
combo smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
In Mexico/central america the don’t shut the windows with the heater on like we do in the cold north.
nickiwest@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I live in Latin America and I don’t even have a heater. My climate control options are “window open” and “window closed.”
RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’d say stupid. I live in a country where most houses are brick walls + concrete floors, and smoke detectors are still common + since a few years also mandated by the government.
The government mandate came after it was found that of the dozens of people that died every year from house fires, 95% suffocated in their sleep.
Some numbers for my region: ~7m population, 70% of houses had smoke detection before the mandate, on average 63 died per year from house fires.
Some incorrect approximative math: Lets assume that the amount of dead could have been halved if those 30% houses had 2 smoke detectors per person (lets say 2 cheap ones for 220 euros per 10 years): 7m0.3 220€/10 /63*2 = a cost of 267€ per year per life saved. Imo that’s a no brainer, it’d be stupid to not invest in smoke detection.
hubobes@piefed.europe.pub 1 day ago
We had 0.2 deaths / 100k population but I feel stupid for not having one. You are right, they cost basically nothing for some piece of mind.
InputZero@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Plus new smoke detectors are usually also carbon monoxide detectors. So you get twice the peace of mind, cause carbon monoxide is a silent killer. It has no color, no odor, no warning signs at all. It’s happened where a whole family goes to bed and doesn’t wake up.
hubobes@piefed.europe.pub 1 day ago
That we actually have. Our apartment has ventilation (not sure if that is the right word, it replaces the air continuous with fresh air from the outside) and integrated into that system is a carbon monoxide detector.
What is even crazier in my opinion is that you can get poisened by smoke while sleeping as you usually don’t smell smoke during sleep.
I guess I’ll get some of those 20 buck ones, they just need to spot something burning.