Millions of homes in Australia are at risk because their smoke detectors are slow to detect a fire, often going off when it's too late, fire safety experts have warned.
They even labelled the most popular type of smoke alarm "fraudulent".
The head of the World Fire Safety Foundation is now meeting Australian fire brigades and government officials in a desperate effort to get the offending devices, ionisation smoke alarms, replaced with more effective devices.
The installation of smoke alarms in new residential properties became compulsory in Queensland in 1997. Later, the law was amended to include the instalaltion of alarms in all residential properties.
WFSF chairman Adrian Butler said millions of properties with those detectors - which account for more than 95 per cent of those in residences - are at risk. "No one wants to admit publicly these things are defective," he said. "We believe it's fraudulent to call them a smoke alarm."
