Why does my smoke alarm go off when I run the dishwasher or clothes washer?

It never happened before this year. The dryer is near the smoke alarm, same floor, so I figured the heat sensor was involved. But today I started the dishwasher downstairs from the smoke alarm and it goes off. I have to turn on the attic fan to be able to run the dishwasher and dryer probably now too. I'm going to talk to my local firehouse tomorrow, but I wanted to know if anyone has had this happen, any advice? Do I need new alarms? Or is there something dangerous going on? Thanks for any ideas or shared experiences!