PHILADELPHIA -- Carmen Grabowski was deciding what to wear to church the next morning when the fire alarm sounded around midnight in her suburban Philadelphia apartment.
Crying and coughing in the thick smoke, the elderly woman escaped through a window of the four-story building with the help of firefighters. "Smoke was coming under the door. I was scared to death," Grabowski said. "We were very lucky."All 90 residents of the Springton Manor Apartments survived last weekend's blaze. More than luck was at play: Since the 1970s, home fire deaths have plunged 44 percent across the nation with advances in fire prevention -- especially smoke detectors -- and education.
"I can say without hesitation that smoke alarms in a home can make the difference between life and death," said Paul Healy, spokesman for the Philadelphia-area Red Cross. "It's a critical thing in keeping families alive."
Home fire deaths dropped from 6,015 in 1978 to 3,360 in 1997, the most recent year measured by the National Fire Protection Association.
Functioning smoke detectors are the most important contributor to the sharp drop, said Michael Karter of the NFPA, a Quincy, Mass.-based research organization. Smoke alarms reduce the risk of death in a fire by 40 to 50 percent, he said.
Nationally, 93 percent of homes now have smoke alarms, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. But the number is somewhat misleading -- officials estimate 30 percent of the devices don't work, either because of malfunctions or simple failure to install fresh batteries.
In Pennsylvania, where fire deaths have dropped 20 percent in the past decade, safety programs have been particularly effective in cities that mandate smoke detectors in homes and buildings.
Philadelphia, which began requiring the detectors in 1995, reported a 62 percent decline in apartment fire deaths in the past five years. In Pittsburgh, fire deaths have dropped 70 percent since 1989, the year before the city began requiring smoke detectors in all buildings.
"People are installing more smoke detectors and changing the batteries," Philadelphia Fire Chief Henry Dolberry said. "They are more aware of their fire safety and smoke detectors."
Still, work remains to increase fire safety in low-income homes, where fires are more common, and for elderly people and children, who are more likely to die in fires.
Though only 7 percent of U.S. homes do not have smoke detectors, those structures accounted for 58 percent of all reported fires, the U.S. Fire Administration says. Karter said low-income housing often is old or poorly managed.