Smoke Detectors

Smoke Detectors and Fire Safety: Do they save lives?

Informative Speech by Tina Gaither
Public Speaking Class ONLINE (45960/45961)
November 4th, 2010

Name: Tina Gaither
Date:   November 3, 2010

Topic: Smoke Detectors and Fire Safety

Purpose: To inform the audience on the proper use of smoke detectors.

Specific purpose: To get the audience to understand that smoke detectors are necessary to survive a fire.

Central Idea: Smoke Detectors save lives.

Introduction:
      I.   Attention: Stories on the news about fatal house fires
      II. Reveal & relate topic: Have audience reflect on personal connection to a fire
      III. Credibility: Statistics on fatalities in fires.
      IV. Preview: A working smoke detector can save your life.

Body:
      I. Smoke Detectors
      A.   History of the smoke detector
      B.   Types of smoke detectors

      II. Proper Fire Safety Planning
      A.   Maintenance of Smoke Detectors
      B.   Other Fire Safety

We have all seen or heard the stories on the news. A family goes to bed and is awaken by the smell of smoke. In a matter of seconds, lives are changed and even some loss.   About 3,500 Americans die each year in fires and about 20,000 are injured.(
It is a tragic reality that could have been avoided if a smoke detector was activated by the fire.
A fire can break out and then spread quickly through out the building without any warning. And by the time it is realized, the flames have engulfed the whole premises. A smoke detector is a device that gives a warning signal at the break out of a fire and it attaches to the ceiling of a room. This device has smoke/heat detectors that sense fire and set off an alarm that lets the residents know that there a fire in the area. The alarm sounds off giving enough time to evacuate the building. Since they were invented in 1969, they have been instrumental in saving a large number of lives.
In 2008, two of every five home fire deaths...