THE ALARMING TRUTH. It was Australia's most deadly house fire. Ever. Eleven people, eight of them children, were killed as an inferno engulfed the home in which they were sleeping. Two families, together for a cousins sleepover, ripped apart by tragedy. Three years after that fatal fire at Slacks Creek, south of Brisbane, the scars remain raw for the survivors. Disturbingly for the rest of us, authorities have not heeded the lessons from the tragedy. As this 60 Minutes special investigation reveals, Australia's most popular fire alarm, the one that's likely fitted in your home, is unlikely to save you.
THE QUEENSLAND CORONER'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
"The Queensland Coroner has come out with his findings after the inquest into the terrible Slacks Creek Fire, which killed 11 people in the same family, and his recommendations are a legacy of their deaths - a wonderful outcome from such a terrible tragedy that gripped the hearts of all Australians.
The Coroner has recommended that laws are changed to minimise the possibility of a similar tragedy reoccurring.
He recommended that every area of a house where people sleep must have Photo Electric smoke alarms installed and this includes any part of the house between the bedrooms and the remainder of the house and in any other storey not containing bedrooms; and that all smoke alarms be interconnected.
With much gratitude I thank 60 Minutes for taking on a difficult story and getting to the heart of this critical public safety issue where approved ionisation smoke alarms are so bad that more than 30% of people disconnect them. Even more tragic is that those who don’t disconnect them think they are safe because they are so sensitive because they activate when families are cooking. These people are completely unaware that if a fire starts with a smouldering smoke, while they sleep at night, their ionisation alarms may not ‘go off’ at all and if they do, it will be typically so late in the fire, they may not escape...
David P. Isaac
Fire Safety Consultant
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