Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government

Taipei City Fire Department has advocated for home safety by installing smoke detectors. Detectors can detect either smoke or heat at an early stage of fire. Once residents get notified by its activation, they can quickly respond, including put out the fire or evacuate. Until January 2019, it is estimated that there were 247 cases in Taipei City where smoke detectors had successfully notified people to take actions, avoiding fire damages and reducing property loss.
Taipei City Fire Department (TFD) has promoted smoke detector installation in various ways since 2010, and has cooperated with every district office since 2015. Until January 2019, the statistics had shown that 361,968 houses had installed at least one smoke detector at home, accounting for 75% of the total. Among them, ZhongShan district even achieved 100% installation rate, so as 142 villages throughout the city. The full statistics could be found at TFD website: https://www.119.gov.taipei. Taipei City Fire Department pointed out that thanks to the long-term effort of every village chief, which facilitated the citizens’s willingness to install smoke detectors, for strengthening home safety in Taipei City.
 Taipei City Fire Department also indicates that this year 6 million dollars have been listed in the budgets to subsidize the cost of household detector installation. People who living under a 5-floor apartment and not equip with any fire alarm system can apply for one household detector at a nearby fire station. In addition, although rooftop add-ons were not included in subsidy objects, they are still at potential risk of fast fire spreading and difficult evacuation. People must install detectors as soon as possible, or these add-ons would be regulated for immediate dismantlement.
Taipei City Fire Department suggests besides the free detector, people should also purchase and install extra smoke detectors in the bedroom, kitchen and staircase, based on their house configuration. They can easily attach the detectors with batteries on the wall without any wires or hassle. The detectors are available in wholesalers, fire equipment companies or online stores. For those who had already installed the detectors, please check their availability at regular time so to prevent fire disasters.