Many households still underestimate the speed and severity of domestic incidents, with less than two minutes to escape a typical house fire and carbon monoxide risks often hidden from view.
Travel adds another gap.
Only a fraction of US states require CO detectors in hotels, leaving guests to protect themselves.
Access is also uneven, with underserved communities less likely to have alarms or basic safety guidance.
Kidde’s response is practical and specific.
Its Detect alarms deliver over 25 percent faster and up to three times more precise smoke detection.
New smart smoke and combination alarms integrate with the Ring app to send real-time alerts to a phone, with optional professional monitoring and emergency dispatch.
Alongside products, Kidde’s Cause For Alarm campaign provides education and donated devices, while Destination Safety raises awareness of CO risks when away from home.
Leading this work is Isis Wu, President of Kidde Residential Fire & Safety, who brings two decades of global leadership to a 100-year-old brand focused on measurable safety outcomes.
FSJA Editor Iain Hoey sat down with Isis to discuss connected home safety, closing gaps in education and access and what comes next.
Cause For Alarm is Kidde’s fire safety education and awareness campaign, created to help close critical gaps in fire and carbon monoxide safety education, awareness and access to home safety devices.
The reality is, not all communities have equal access to this type of education or these devices that help save lives – and there are some communities that are disproportionately impacted by home fires depending on race, age, socioeconomic factors and more.
Everyone deserves to feel safe and protected in their homes and this campaign is designed to help make every home a safer home.
Now in its fourth year, Cause For Alarm supports vulnerable communities both by providing educational resources and by donating smoke and CO alarms to those in need.
In partnership with organizations like National PTA, Kidde has distributed multilingual toolkits, children’s books and other family-friendly materials to help ensure every household has access to this information.
Many parents don’t believe a fire could happen to them – yet over 1,000 people, including children, lost their lives in home fires across North America last year alone and at least one child dies from a house fire in America every day.
That’s why Cause For Alarm is so deeply important to Kidde.
Last year’s campaign featured The Living Jingle – a powerful call to action told through the voices of children who survived home fires.
Their stories serve as a reminder that fire safety isn’t just important, it’s urgent.
Preparation saves lives and everyone deserves the tools to help them stay safe.
Whether it’s families on vacation or professionals traveling for work, many people are unknowingly at risk due to a critical gap in carbon monoxide safety regulations across the U.S.
Only 14 states currently require carbon monoxide detectors in hotels and other hospitality settings – leaving individual travelers responsible for their own safety.
With inconsistent laws and enforcement, people may assume they’re protected when, in reality, they may not be.
The statistics are alarming.
According to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Carbon Monoxide Awareness Association, carbon monoxide poisoning is responsible for over 100,000 emergency room visits, 14,000 hospitalizations and more than 400 deaths in the U.S.
every year.
And those numbers are likely underestimated because most people don’t even realize that they have CO poisoning, given that the symptoms are flu-like.
That’s why Kidde launched the Destination Safety campaign: to raise awareness, empower travelers and help prepare travelers for their upcoming trips.
Our Travel Safety Checklist provides simple, proactive steps for families, such as packing a battery-operated carbon monoxide alarm*, checking for functioning safety devices in accommodations and identifying emergency exits.
Without federal requirements for carbon monoxide detectors in hotels or vacation rentals, many travelers may be unknowingly exposed to serious risk.
*It’s important to note that if you plan to travel with a battery-operated CO alarm, you must remember to remove the batteries from the alarm before packing and store the device in a sealed container or bag to protect it from contamination and the elements.
Reinsert the batteries and test the alarm to ensure it’s working properly at your destination.
With less than two minutes to escape a house fire, every second counts and our Kidde Detect alarms offer over 25% faster and up to three times more precise smoke detection.
That speed can make a life-saving difference!
At the same time, more than 60% of home fires are caused by human error, such as leaving the stove on, getting distracted, leaving appliances plugged in, or even something as simple as forgetting to blow out a candle.
Our “Help Protect You From You” campaign leans into that reality, positioning Kidde’s Detect devices as a smarter, faster and more aware version of yourself, always alert and watching out for your safety.
This ad campaign also leverages humor – which is rare in the fire safety industry, which typically leans on fear-based messaging – to show how these everyday human mistakes create fire hazards and feature relatable people in common scenarios.
The lighthearted tone makes technical fire safety information approachable.
Also, through our new partnership with Ring, we’re taking that protection a step further.
The new Kidde Smart Smoke and Combination (Smoke + CO) Alarms with Ring also offer faster, smarter, more precise detection – plus real-time alerts, optional 24/7 monitoring and emergency dispatch capabilities.
With today’s fires burning hotter and faster than ever, quick response is critical.
What makes this partnership so harmonious is the combination of Kidde’s fire safety expertise with Ring’s smart home technology, which delivers a powerful, connected solution that gives homeowners greater control and peace of mind no matter where you are – all powered by the innovation that defines Kidde.
With traditional alarms, you’re only alerted if you’re home to hear them – but with Kidde’s new suite of Smart Smoke and Combination Alarms with Ring, you receive real-time alerts to your phone wherever you are.
This means you can respond faster, whether you’re at work, on vacation, or just in another part of your house.
As mentioned previously, families who choose Kidde’s smart alarms that are integrated with Ring also have access to the professional monitoring and emergency dispatch service through a new Ring 24/7 Smoke & CO Monitoring subscription ($5 per month), with trained agents able to dispatch emergency services if needed.
This is especially beneficial if there’s a CO event, because the occupants might not be in a position to alert authorities for help.
It’s a smarter, more connected way to protect your home and family and fully revolutionizes the idea of home safety.
A clear example is a recent testimonial from a customer who said they had an incident while cooking dinner.
They wrote to us to say their alarm sounded and immediately the professional monitoring service was contacted and prepared to send assistance, saying this smart connectivity is especially helpful for families with children and pets.
These regulations reinforce the importance of innovation and quality which pushes us and the industry, to continue raising the bar in safety.
At Kidde, we are proactive in aligning with and exceeding evolving standards.
All of our latest products meet or surpass UL 9th edition requirements and are designed to support both smart and traditional interconnected systems.
And we’re constantly working on the next level of detection.
Over the next year, we’re focused on deepening our impact through education, innovation and partnership building.
We’ll continue to expand our Cause For Alarm campaign, prioritizing fire safety education and access for underserved communities who are statistically at a higher risk.
We can’t do it alone, so we are deepening and expanding our industry and government coalitions and partnerships to spread the message and awareness more broadly.
At the same time, we’re focused on the ongoing rollout of our Smart Smoke and Combination Alarms with Ring, which launched earlier this year, to bring connected detection to more households.
The Ring partnership is also a piece of a broader goal to get fire safety devices into the smart technology conversation.
We want to create devices with differentiating features that encourage people to upgrade, not just when their alarms are at end of life, but to achieve the optimal safety set up for their homes.
Ultimately, our goal is to help protect every moment for everyone by combining life-saving technology with purposeful outreach.
Home safety will become ever more connected, predictive and personalized.
We’ll see smarter detection systems that adapt to different environments, greater integration with broader smart home ecosystems and increased focus on multifunctional, multi-sensing devices.
Kidde will continue leading with purpose – innovating in ways that help protect people and empower them to take control of their home safety.
29% faster average smoke detection based on internal testing of smoldering wood fires for Kidde 9th Edition vs. leading competitor 8th Edition products
29% faster average smoke detection based on internal testing of smoldering wood fires for Kidde 9th Edition vs. leading competitor 8th Edition products
[1] Service available within the U.S. (all 50 states, but not U.S. territories). Ring does not own its monitoring center. Smoke and carbon monoxide monitoring is not available for business or commercially zoned addresses. See Ring Alarm licenses at: ring.com/licenses. Additional fees may be required for permits, false alarms, or Alarm Verified Guard Response, depending on your local jurisdiction.
https://www.nfpa.org/about-nfpa/press-room/reporters-guide-to-fire/consequences-of-fire
Office of Fire Prevention and Control, “Smoke Alarms Save Lives,” 2021. and National Fire Protection Association, “Home Fire Victims by Age and Gender,” December 2021.
Glen Echo Fire Department, “Children and Fire Safety”
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Carbon Monoxide Awareness Association.
Based on total household installations as of December 2023.
