The Age of Enlightenment! The Changing views on smoke alarms in Europe January 2008 By Jason Perrins, Managing Director of BRK Brands Europe Ltd

Issues Gathering Up To Date Statistics From Across Europe Who has domestic smoke alarms and in what country Purchasing and usage UK : Yearly Fire Statistics are available & Fire Kills Campaign In other countries, figures may vary In 2006, together with Nederlandse Brandwonden Stichting BRK Brands undertook a market study to assess the status in the Netherlands In January 2007, BRK Brands undertakes a similar study in Belgium In August 2007 the study was repeated with NBS in the Netherlands In September 2007 BRK Brands undertakes a market study in France (adapted for this market)

Ten years ago, penetration of smoke alarms in dwellings UK : %; % Netherlands : < 10% Belgium : < 1% France : < 3% Today, UK : 89% Netherlands : 64,4% Belgium : 53,7% (70% Wallonia, 50% Brussels, 30% Flanders) France : 10,4%

Major catalysts to change United Kingdom : - Building Code 1992 (new & renovated buildings) - Building Code updates 2000 (Approved document B) - Fire Kills Campaign – TV advertising times pa. This is the 10 th campaign. Publicity material and information. Netherlands : - Building Code 2003 (new & renovated dwellings) however 62% of people are not aware of it - Fire Safety Week has existed for more than 15 year and has become an annual smoke alarm campaign running for one month in October 06, 07 & is planned for 08 Belgium : - Brussels decree (rented dwellings) in Wallonia decree (all dwellings) in Flemish decree is immanent France : - Proposal of law in October 2005, yet to be passed % of equipped households did it as prevention, % as a result of in store promotions % due to media

Percentage of people with a demand for smoke alarms at home Netherlands : 96,8% Belgium : 86,6% France : of the people without a smoke alarm 36.5% did not consider it neccessary 25,5% say they don’t because they are renting 16,8% because it is too expensive! The same group would install one if they where obliged to by their insurance company (46,9%), or by law (32,7%). How much do you think a smoke alarm costs? Netherlands : between 11 & 30€: 66% Belgium : between 11 & 30€: 61,1% France : between 11 & 30€: 39,4% - 37% believes > 51€ of which 22,8% >80€!

Location of installation NL & BE : Mostly in living and sleeping areas. 15% in both countries install their smoke alarms in kitchen! Testing In the UK, 1 in 3 smoke alarms fail to operate in fires - mainly due to missing or non- working batteries. Reflected in the Fire Kills Campaign ‘Pull your finger out! Test your smoke alarm’ 13% in BE never test their smoke alarms. In NL, it is 19% but 17,8% know their smoke alarms do not have working batteries. Maintenance In NL 58,9% have never maintained their smoke alarms (71% do not know they have to!). In the less mature Belgium, this is 44,3%. NL : 36% have never taken the battery out of the smoke – 33,4% did so because of low battery signal. In Belgium, 65,1% & 22,4%.

Conclusion Legislation Provision of information Raising awareness of prevention In less mature countries like France, better control of the market is required & an increased focus on educating the population In ‘mature’ countries like the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium, we have to educate people on the usage and maintenance of smoke alarms and home saftey in general it’s not enough to install them, they have to test and clean them and develop and practice evacuation plans. via Fire Brigades activities In store information (or collaboration, see example NL) Media information.