Multi-criteria state machines 310 can include several different state machines: sensor state machines and system state machines. Each state machine can be associated with a particular hazard such as, for example, a smoke hazard, a carbon monoxide hazard, or a heat hazard, and the multi-criteria state machines may leverage data acquired by one or more sensors in managing detection of a hazard. In some embodiments, a sensor state machine can be implemented for each hazard. In other embodiments, a system state machine may be implemented for each hazard or a subset of hazards. The sensor state machines can be responsible for controlling relatively basic hazard detection system functions and the system state machines can be responsible for controlling relatively advanced hazard detection system functions. In managing detection of a hazard, each sensor state machine and each system state machine can transition among any one of its states based on sensor data 302, hush events 304, and transition conditions 306. A hush event can be a user initiated command to hush, for example, a sounding alarm or pre-alarm voice instruction.