This weekend firefighters in Atlanta, Georgia went door-to-door in some of the city’s low-income neighborhoods to replace free fire alarms that may be counterfeit. The fire department unwittingly distributed 18,500 bogus photoelectric smoke alarms from 2006 through this month as part of the Atlanta Smoke Alarm Program.
Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran announced the recall of smoke alarms after his department received information from Underwriters Laboratories (UL) that the photoelectric smoke alarms they distributed bore counterfeit UL labels and were not compliant with UL’s safety requirements for smoke alarms.
In late 2005, and early 2006, 18,507 of the photoelectric smoke alarms were purchased from a vendor based in California. Chief Cochran said, “These counterfeit smoke alarms are a threat to the fire safety and fire prevention campaign that Atlanta Fire Rescue has embarked upon for years. As such, to minimize the risk ofloss of public confidence in smoke alarms and the false sense of security of the residents who have counterfeit alarms, we are in the process of working with the USFA, FEMA, and smoke alarm manufacturers to implement a recall program designed to remove all counterfeit smoke alarms, and replace them with UL certified photoelectric smoke alarms.”
Since the launch of the smoke alarm program in 2005, thousands of residents have been provided with smoke alarms at no cost. Prior to being notified of the counterfeit UL labels on the photoelectric smoke alarms, the department had received no reports of problems with any of the alarms that have been provided to residents.
Chief Cochran will be a keynote speaker at the “First Annual Western Canada Emergency Services Leadership Conference” facilitated by FireWise Consulting Ltd. in association with Leduc Fire Services on October 4 & 5 in Leduc Alberta. For more information about Chief Cochrane or the conference please visit
