By Jim Dalrymple

For Daily Herald

Peter Thorpe still remembers showing up to a kitchen fire on May 27, 2011. The nearly six-year veteran of the Provo Fire Department described the incident as an “everyday” kind of call, and when his crew arrived they found a lot of smoke and blaring smoke detectors. The homeowner was no where to be found.

“There was food burning on the stove,” Thorpe explained. “We took care of it, but on the way home I blurted out, ‘why can’t the smoke alarm turn off the stove.’ ”

Almost immediately, Thorpe realized he was onto something. He spent a sleepless night mulling over the idea and soon afterward called Michael Sanders, a friend, former LDS missionary companion and Brigham Young University engineering grad student.

Roughly a year and a half later, the partnership has grown to a five-person startup that is nearly ready to take a ground-breaking fire prevention device, dubbed Active Alarm, to the market. According to Thorpe, the device responds to the sound of a smoke detector and, after one minute, cuts off power to electric stoves.

Read more.

Picture courtesy of MARK JOHNSTON/Daily Herald