In a move that updates a 30-year-old law, the Illinois General Assembly has changed the smoke detector requirement for homes, requiring homeowners to now replace old detectors and use long-term, 10-year units.
In a news release from the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance, it said the law was announced Wednesday at the Southern Illinois University Recreation Center. Sarah Patrick, the director of the Jackson County Public Health Department, said in the release that in 2017 there were 114 residential fire deaths in the state and added that there were already 90 in 2018.
“The General Assembly passed a new law to address this horrific problem, by requiring Illinois residents to replace their old smoke detectors with the type that has a long-term 10-year sealed battery by the end of 2022,” Patrick said.
The new law is designed to cut down on human error — a lot of smoke detectors are not operational because batteries have died or been removed.