Change Your Smoke Alarm Batteries

State Fire Marshal Larry L. Flowers is reminding Ohioans to make a potentially lifesaving change when they move their clocks forward one hour on Sunday, March 8: Change the batteries in your smoke alarms!

The Rome Fire Department encourages all residents to make a habit of changing the batteries in their smoke detectors at least twice a year – at the beginning and end of daylight savings time.  If smoke alarms are more than 10 years old, you should replace the entire unit.

“We’re still finding that many homes in Ohio don’t have working smoke alarms,” said Marshal Flowers. “Many times, fatal fires could have been prevented with the help of the early warning a smoke alarm provides. It gives people time to escape.”

For the greatest protection, install a smoke detector on every level of your home and inside each sleeping area.  Also, develop an escape plan with two ways out and make sure every family member knows what to do and where to meet outside if the fire alarm sounds.  Take time to practice both a primary and secondary escape plan, so that if a real emergency occurred, you and your family know what to do.

Please follow these additional tips:

• Test smoke alarms at least once each month to ensure that they are working properly.
• Vacuum the dust from inside the detector at least once every year.
• Never “borrow” a smoke detector’s battery for another use.
• Change batteries twice a year or if a detector “chirps” to signal low battery power.
• If you have a smoke alarm that was installed before March 8, 2005, completely replace the unit this weekend.