DON'T FEAR THE DRYER! I run it when I'm sleeping or not at home. If it lights up, it lights up. That's what smoke alarms are for. I see no need to add a additional heat/smoke detector above a laundry space. Our current level of smoke detector coverage seems adequate to me. I think maintaining operating smoke alarms in your residence is much more important than adding more detector requirements.
Amen brother!!!
Let's put speculation aside and deal with undisputed numbers.
There are approximately 116,000,000 households in america. Average one dryer per household. I realize that not everyone has a dryer but, I think it would be fair to state there are at least 100,000,000 dryers in operation nationwide. There are 15,000 dryer fires a year. I will even assume that they will all non-preventable, even lint removal won't matter( even though that iS the cause in the most of them.)
This means that .0015% of all homes have dryer fires. You are willing to entertain a code change for That fraction of the households? It is not justification. Besides the data they collect regarding dryer fires includes those that originated due to dryer malfunction as well. So again, following that logic, we should put heats and smokes in every closet becuase fires start in there too!!
The other point being missed is that the more round off white things on the ceiling that have problems ( low batteries, dusty, end of service). The more we desensitize the general public, the less serious they take the upkeep of such devices.
Electricmanscott, this is not a job protection thing, I'm not sure how you came up with that.