Daylight Savings Time….. a Good Time to Check Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Now that Daylight Savings is officially here, not only do you change your clocks, but you are encouraged to test your smoke/carbon monoxide detectors as well as change the batteries.  Testing and replacing batteries is one of the easiest and most effective home improvements you can do to protect you and your family from fire and/or carbon monoxide poisoning.  Batteries should be changed at least one time per year….I either recommend at the beginning or end of Daylight Savings (or both), or January 1st…whichever is easier for you to remember.

Things to remember:

1. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for testing your smoke detectors/carbon monoxide detectors.
2. Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors at least one time per month.
3. You and your family should practice fire drills and why your at it…have an emergency kit near by.  Check out my blog from last year on Emergency Preparedness Tips.

 Here are some facts I came across on the internet:

•  Although smoke detectors are present in 94 % of American homes, 20% do not work, mostly because of dead or missing batteries. That means roughly 19 million homes are at risk due to non-working smoke alarms and another 6 million homes are at risk due to no smoke alarms.

• In the U.S. roughly 80% of fire deaths result from fires in homes without working smoke detectors. Half of the home fire deaths resulted from fires in the small percentage of homes (6%) without any smoke detectors.

• If a fire occurs, working smoke detectors cut the risk of dying in a home fire nearly in half by providing early warning and critical extra seconds to escape.

• Eighty-three (83) percent of all civilian fire-related deaths are a result of home fires.

• The National Fire Alarm Code recommends a minimum of one smoke alarm on each level of a home, including one inside each bedroom for new construction and one outside each sleeping area.

• In addition to changing smoke alarm batteries, smoke detectors should be replaced every ten (10) years.

• Somewhere in the nation, a home fire death occurs approximately every three hours.

• The peak time for home fire fatalities is between 10 pm and 6 am –When most people are sleeping.

• Households with non-working smoke detectors now outnumber those with no smoke alarms.