Smart home security camera prevents fire
This £200 home security camera helped prevent a devastating fire by alerting a homeowner on his smartphone Netatmo

The owner of a smart security camera got his money's worth after a connected device helped prevent his house from going up in flames by alerting to the breakout of a blaze via his smartphone.

The internet-enabled camera, which can be accessed by owners on their smartphones to check-in on their home while out and about, was equipped with an acoustic sensor that was able to detect the sound of a smoke alarm going off caused by an electronic toy catching fire.

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It sent the home owner and father of three, known as Christophe, a smartphone notification which enabled him to phone the fire services to extinguish the breakout before it spread, saving his family home and dogs from being razed to the ground.

Images of the live feed from the Netatmo Welcome camera shows the moment the living room was engulfed in smoke as a small fired raged in the corner of the room, something that wouldn't have enabled the home owner to react with the same speed if using a traditional CCTV camera.

Smart home security camera prevents fire
These before and during shots were taken from the live video feed of the fire in action Netatmo

"Whilst my family and I were attending a basketball game a few kilometres away from home, I received a notification on my smartphone reporting that our fire alarm had been triggered", explained the home owner. "I immediately checked the video and saw that a fire had started in our living room. The firemen were instantly alerted and were able to prevent the fire from spreading."

Connected security cameras are a growing trend with devices becoming more abundant and more affordable that offer a wealth of features such as motion detection, facial recognition and audio alerts. Essentially being the size of a webcam they're also easy to setup and install as opposed to older systems, which would need hardwiring into a closed-circuit network.

This instance of a smart home camera saving the day is another to add to the increasing list of heroics. Accounts of home and business owners being alerted to only to see a live feed of an intruder raiding their home or office are on the rise, which not only help police respond immediately the footage provides vital evidence for prosecution.