Smoke alarms were present in three-quarters (74 percent) of the reported home fires from 2018 to 2022. Nearly three out of five (59 percent) home fire deaths were caused by fires in properties with no smoke alarms (43 percent) or smoke alarms that failed to operate (16 percent).
The death rate per 1,000 home structure fires is approximately 60 percent lower in homes with working smoke alarms than in homes with no alarms or none that operated.
Of the fire fatalities that occurred in homes with working smoke alarms, 28 percent occurred when the alarm failed to alert occupants and 9 percent occurred when the occupants were alerted but failed to respond.
Civilians who were fatally injured in homes with working smoke alarms were more likely to have been in the area of origin and involved in the ignition (37 percent). Most victims were escaping (32 percent), sleeping (29 percent), or unable to act (15 percent) at the time of injury.
Hardwired smoke alarms (with or without battery backup) were found in 50 percent of the reported home fires in properties with smoke alarms; smoke alarms powered by battery were only found in 44 percent of such fires.
Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) of the fatal injuries from fires in homes with smoke alarms occurred in properties with battery-only powered alarms. When present, hardwired smoke alarms operated in 94 percent of the fires considered large enough to trigger a smoke alarm. Battery-only alarms operated 85 percent of the time. Missing or non-functional power sources, including missing or disconnected batteries, dead batteries, and disconnected hardwired alarms, were the most common factors when smoke alarms failed to operate.

The dangers of CO exposure depend on a number of variables, including the victim's health and activity level. Infants, pregnant women, and people with physical conditions that limit their body's ability to use oxygen (i.e. emphysema, asthma, heart disease) can be more severely affected by lower concentrations of CO than healthy adults would be.

A person can be poisoned by a small amount of CO over a longer period of time or by a large amount of CO over a shorter amount of time.

In 2016, local fire departments responded to an estimated 79,600 carbon monoxide incidents, or an average of nine such calls per hour. This does not include the 91,400 carbon monoxide alarm malfunctions and the 68,000 unintentional carbon monoxide alarms.

Data from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Health Statistics shows that in 2017, 399 people died of unintentional non-fire carbon monoxide poisoning.