Abstract
Fires originating from cooking areas are the second leading cause of fatalities and loss related to residential fires. The predominant root cause of residential stovetop cooking fires has been found to result from unattended cooking. The installation of smoke detectors can only detect and at best alert residents to a fire hazard. Control technologies for cutting gas supply to cooking devices upon receiving signals from detectors is not new. Many of stovetop mitigation technologies are currently in existence as consumer products or patents, however little evaluation has been conducted on these products in order to develop a more efficient and effective device to help reduce the frequency of cooking related fires. The paper presents a short review of literature and goes on to discuss a fire sensing device developed to act as a pre-ignition sensor that will cut off power supply to cooking devices upon receiving inputs from a detection device. The device proved to be effective when it was tested both in the laboratory and a real kitchen environment. The installation of this device, in addition to an installed detection device will play a major role in reducing the risk of most kitchen fires.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Johnsson Erik L (1998) Study of technology for detecting pre-ignition conditions of cooking related fires associated with electric and gas ranges: Final Report NISTIR 5950: United States Department of Commerce
Bounagui A, Benichou N (2007) Residential fire scenario analysis in Ontario, Alberta and BC. A report from NRC Institute for Research in Construction, issue 239. National Research Council, Canada
Johnson EL (1995) ‘Study of technology for detecting pre-ignition conditions of cooking-related fires associated with electric and gas ranges and cook tops’. A report from the Building and Fire research Laboratory. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (http://fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/fire98/PDF/f98064.pdf)
Bounagui A, Benichou N, Ederne V (2004) Residential fire analysis in Ontario. A report from NRC Institute for Research in Construction, issue 173. National Research Council
Ontario Office of the Fire Marshal (2009) Reducing residential stovetop fires in Ontario’. The Office of the fire Marshal Technical Papers Online: http://www.ofm.gov.on.ca/english/Publications/guidelines. Accessed 25 June 2010
DiGuiseppi C, Slater S, Roberts I, Adams L, Sculpher M, Wade A, McCarthy M (1999) The “Let’s Get Alarmed” initiative: a smoke alarm give-away programme. Inj Prev 5: 177–182
Baker DE, Adams P (1993) Residential fire detection. Nation Ag Safety Database Online: http://nasdonline.org/static_content/documents/247/d000048.pdf. Accessed 25 June 2010
Li J, Wang S, Dou Z (2001) Discrimination of smoke particles using infrared photoelectrical detection. Int J Infrared Millim Waves 22 (1):141–151
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lushaka, B., Zalok, E. Development of a Sensing Device to Reduce the Risk from Kitchen Fires. Fire Technol 50, 791–803 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-012-0278-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-012-0278-5