As part of the "Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery" annual home fire safety campaign, your local fire departments, urge you to adopt a simple, potentially life saving habit: Change the batteries in your smoke alarms when you change your clocks ahead to daylight saving time this November 1st.
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:
• Each day, an average of three children die in home fires - 1,100 children each year. About 3,600 children are injured in house fires each year. 90 percent of child fire deaths occur in homes without working smoke alarms.
• Although smoke alarms are in 92 percent of American homes, nearly one-third don't work because of old or missing batteries.
• The hours between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. are the peak alarm times for home fire deaths – when people tend to be asleep and the house is likely to be dark.
• About 65 percent of home-fire deaths result from fires in homes without working smoke alarms or the smoke alarms that are present are not working
• Only 23 percent of U.S. families have developed and practiced a home fire escape plan to ensure they could escape quickly and safely. Developing a family emergency escape plan can be crucial to everyone's safety.
• Smoke alarms don't last forever. They should be replaced at least every 10 years.
• A working smoke alarm reduces the risk of dying in a home fire by nearly half.
• The "Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery" campaign encourages you to arm yourself against home fires by taking some basic home fire safety precautions, including installing fresh batteries in smoke alarms.
Here's NFPA's Sharon Gamache discusses, in the following YouTube video, the latest information on types of smoke alarms you need, their placement and special features. Working smoke alarms give you early warning to help you escape a fire.
(The usual disclaimers: I am not a journalist; This is a blog that expresses an outlook and is not conclusive in any shape or manner.)
