Kidde, First Alert class action claims ionization-only smoke alarms can’t detect all fires

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Kidde First Alert class action overview: 

• Who: Plaintiffs Stephen Pons, Caroline Coleman and Stanley Wolken filed a class action lawsuit against Walter Kidde Portable Equipment, Inc., and BRK Brands, doing business as First Alert. 
• Why: The ionization smoke alarms sold by Kidde and First Alert only sense flames and related heat but do not detect smoke despite being characterized as smoke alarms, the Kidde class action claims.
• Where: The First Alert class action was filed in federal court in California.
• What are my options: Try Ace Hardware for smoke alarm alternatives.

Plaintiffs Stephen Pons, Caroline Coleman and Stanley Wolken filed a class action lawsuit against both Walter Kidde Portable Equipment, Inc., and BRK Brands (First Alert) claiming that the ionization smoke alarms sold by the companies only detect high heat and flames but not smoke when a first begins.

“Crucially, any product advertised, labeled, and sold as a “smoke alarm” for residential use should have photoelectric technology inside, because—in stark contrast to ionization technology—it can quickly detect and warn of the presence of smoke,” the Kidde class action states. “Conversely, an alarm product that uses only ionization technology (an “ionization-only device”) cannot effectively detect smoke from slow, smoldering fires.”

Companies have sold photoelectric or hybrid detectors for years and know the shortcomings of the ionization detectors but have been able to cheaply mass produce ionization-only devices and sold them as smoke alarms even though they don’t detect smoke, the First Alert class action says.

Mislabeling ionization detectors as smoke alarms is a public health risk, First Alert class action claims

The ionization-only smoke alarms mislead the public and pose a public health risk as they are in tens of millions of American homes, the Kidde class action states. The companies have known the ionization-only alarm risks since at least 1976, the First Alert class action claims.

Kidde recalled 226,000 Kidde TruSense Smoke Alarms and combination smoke/carbon monoxide alarms in 2021 because the models failed to set off an alert when there was a fire.

Have you had a smoke detector not work properly and sense smoke? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by Sean Eskovitz of Eskovitz Law LLP.

The Kidde First Alert class action lawsuit is Pons, et al. v. Walter Kidde Portable Equipment Inc., et al., Case No. 4:23-cv-03436, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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