Photo: Fox 21 News

From Fox 21 News • March 14, 2022

As we turn our clocks an hour ahead for daylight saving time, local fire departments mark this day annually to remind people to also check the smoke detectors in their homes.

Batteries need to be changed twice a year which is why they use daylight savings as an annual reminder to check your detectors.

Firefighters say it’s something people tend to forget, and they see the tragic result of that often.

 Just simply putting in new batteries could determine life or death if there is a fire, “we do go to fires and we’ve had fire fatalities in Duluth where the home didn’t have working smoke detectors so that brings it right to home for us that we don’t want to have to go to a home and have somebody end up dying in a home fire because they didn’t have a detector that was working,” Jake Gunderson a Captain at the Duluth Fire Department said.

In Cloquet, the fire district there was handing out free batteries for smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. They were set up from 10a till 2p and said upwards of 200 people received new batteries, and a short education on the importance of changing them out every year.

 “We recommend to change them twice a year and the reason that we recommend them twice a year, is so that they’ll change them once a year. So anytime you change your clock, change your batteries. The big thing about having them working is we want that early detection so if there is an emergency in the house whether that’s carbon monoxide or fire, those alarms go off, people get out of their houses safely,” Jason Eckenberg, a Firefighter and EMT with the Cloquet Fire District said.

Fire crews also say it’s a good idea to have an escape plan at home for you and your family to talk about in case you all need to evacuate quick.

To see the original report and read related stories, follow this link to the Fox 21 News website. https://www.fox21online.com/2022/03/13/fire-department-encourages-smoke-detector-checks/