As you change your clocks this weekend, make sure to check your smoke alarms,
This according to state Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey, who also said alarms should typically be replaced every 10 years and carbon monoxide alarms usually after five to seven years.
“Prevent that annoying chirp of a dying smoke alarm battery by replacing the alkaline batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms now, unless you have newer alarms with 10-year sealed battery,” he said. “Check the age of your alarms.”
“Time is your enemy in a fire, and working smoke alarms give you precious time to use your home escape plan before poisonous gases and heat make escape impossible,” Ostroskey said. “Remember: smoke alarms are a sound you can live with.”
“Smoke alarms, like other household appliances, don’t last forever,” said Chief David Mottor, president of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of Massachusetts, “Every 10 years, the entire alarm needs to be replaced, not just the batteries.”
The state fire code requires replacement battery-operated smoke alarms to have 10-year, sealed, non-replaceable, non-rechargeable batteries in older one- and two-family homes.
“Fire officials hope that if we make smoke alarms easier for people to maintain, they will take care of them. We see too many disabled smoke alarms in fires when people really needed them to work,” Mottor said.
Two hundred forty-one fire departments across the state have grant-funded Senior SAFE programs. Seniors who need help testing, maintaining or replacing smoke alarms should contact their local fire department or senior center for assistance.
“Four out of every 10 of the people who have died in fires last year were over 65,” Ostroskey said. “We want our seniors to be safe from fire in their own homes.”
“No one expects to be a victim of a fire, but the best way to survive one that does occur is to have working smoke alarms,” Mottor said.
According to state fire officials, there are only one to three minutes to escape after the smoke alarm sounds in the average house fire.
“Take a few minutes to protect those you love by changing the batteries in your smoke alarms this weekend,” said Mottor. “Then take a step stool and some 9-volts to your parents or older neighbor’s and ask if you can refresh their smoke alarms.”