Fire Safety While Cruising

One of the things that has often concerned me while cruising is the ability to hear a smoke alarm while the vessel is operating. We have smoke detectors installed in the Sleeping Cabins, Engine Room, inside the Main Electrical Panel (sniff out any hot wires early), behind the Helm Dash, etc. The detectors seldom alarm, but when they do we fully investigate.

My main concern has always been "will we be able to hear an alarm when we are cruising for hours and hours on the flybridge" (especially the engine room alarm). Well I think I have found a relatively inexpensive solution!

First Alert make a smoke alarm that is battery operated (2 AA Batteries) is "Wirelessly Interconnected" and has, not only an easy to hear alarm, but also sound an additional "Voice" alarm that tells you the location of the alarm that set off the warning!

We have installed them in the locations mentioned above, but also one under the dash on the flybridge. Now when an alarm sounds at any one of the alarm locations, they all sound off, but what I really think is cool is they all also announce the location of the alarm that set off the alarm (where the smoke has been detected). Note that the locations it can announce (9 different locations) are geared for a residence (kitchen,utility room, guest bedroom,etc). So for one in the engine room we chose to set the location as "Basement" the Pilothouse we chose "Office" , etc.

I cannot yet comment on how frequently they false alarm, but they are well made, easy to install, and easy to setup and relatively inexpensive to purchase. They look like an easy solution to provide an "early warning" to a problem best known sooner, than later! You may want to check them out (I have no connection).

Stay Safe!

https://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-...+alert+wireless+interconnected+smoke+detector

Norm Miller
Quiet Company
Great Harbour GH47
AGLCA# 8109 MTOA# 4686

Have one directly over a smoky Lehman and one in the Saloon.

3 actual and zero false alarms in 2 years and 7000 miles, 900 hrs cruising.

The alarms were once when the oil fill cap was left off accidently and 2X when the dampner plate came apart and pieces caught by the flywheeld caused heat and dust that apoeared like or was actual smoke.

Mine are Kidde brand.

Great points

I am also concerned about being able to exit the sleeping areas in the event of fire. Too many boat designs have only one exit from the sleeping areas.

They are nice alarms, I have 4 or 5 in the house with the CO option. They don't even false when I bombard them with 1kW of SSB energy. Unlike my garage door openers

The ones I bought only "see" smoke (good for smoldering fires where particles are released) but I also have ionization smoke detectors. They are best for say electric wires heating up but not yet in flames. I have one inside my main breaker box, engine room, etc too. (Yes I'm paranoid of fire and want to detect asap).

psneeld said:

Have one directly over a smoky Lehman and one in the Saloon.

3 actual and zero false alarms in 2 years and 7000 miles, 900 hrs cruising.

The alarms were once when the oil fill cap was left off accidently and 2X when the dampner plate came apart and pieces caught by the flywheeld caused heat and dust that apoeared like or was actual smoke.

Mine are Kidde brand.

Click to expand...

All three are things you want to know about sooner rather than later, even if not fires. So a very useful device, it would seem.

The closest I have come to a fire during running was my incident where a rubber exhaust hose ran dry, due to a plugged riser on a V8 engine. It started burning from the inside, eventually making some smoke out the stern. We caught it before it burned thru.

Point being, you can have a "fire-like" critical event with the engine, and no smoke detector will catch it. But, a temperature sensor on the exhaust fittings will.