Fire departments nationwide are promoting the annual “Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery” campaign on Sunday, November 1, 2020. Fire officials encourage all residents to adopt the simple, life-saving habit of changing smoke alarm batteries when they change their clocks back from daylight savings time to standard time.
It’s an easy, inexpensive, and proven way to protect your family and your home. Plus, with winter quickly approaching and most everyone turning their heating systems on, it also makes this an ideal time to make sure your heating system is working properly. This is a great opportunity to check your carbon monoxide detectors as well.
Today’s home fires grow in size faster than ever, typically allowing as little as one to two minutes to escape a home fire from the time the smoke alarm sounds, due to current home furnishings burning faster and producing more toxic gases and smoke. One thing that is instrumental in reducing deaths is to close doors to prevent the fire from spreading and to facilitate escape.
Almost two-thirds of home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with either no smoke alarms or nonworking smoke alarms. Smoke alarm failures usually result from missing or dead batteries or disconnected wires. The peak time for home fire fatalities is between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. when most families are sleeping; a working smoke alarm provides critical extra time needed to get out safely.
All smoke alarms should be tested monthly.
