So after years and years of educational efforts, public service announcements and the distribution of free smoke alarms with installation to anyone who wants one, the brains at Johns Hopkins conclude that the reason people are perishing in home fires is because, as their research shows, in more than half of the alarms in the homes that have smoke alarms, they were not functional ("Baltimore's fire safety programs need support," Readers respond, Dec. 28). Does it occur to them that perhaps the people are dysfunctional? On top of providing the alarm and installing it, I guess we need to provide timely inspection and battery changing, and take out the trash while we're at it.

Dave Reich, Perry Hall