Ordinary smoke alarms can only do one thing
Fire safety is a crucial consideration, and smoke detectors take on a critical part in safeguarding your family. However, smoke detectors have various shortcomings. To illustrate, they will only detect smoke, not heat. If there is a fire in your house, you might not be alerted until the smoke reaches the smoke detector. Although there are further telltale indications of fire -- like a sharp rise in heat -- if there's no smoke, there is no warning from your smoke detector.
Additionally, smoke detectors only activate if they detect an adequate amount of smoke. When a fire creeps along slowly at first, you might not be warned until the situation is out of hand. Some smoke detectors utilize dual sensors, meaning they will detect smoke from both a raging fire and a more gradual burn. Whenever they sound their alarm, it falls to the occupant to call first responders after exiting the property.