Check Your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors When You Change Your Clocks

Don Stats Safety Tips

As daylight saving time comes to an end on Sunday, Nov. 7, Chief Don Stats and the North Reading Fire Department would like to remind the community to check your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms when it becomes time to change your clocks.

Clocks will fall back an hour at 2 a.m., giving an extra 60 minutes of sleep this weekend. However, days will begin to feel shorter, with sunset coming an hour earlier and evenings continuing to get darker.

“Working smoke and CO alarms are key to surviving a fire or carbon monoxide leak,” he said. “As we ‘fall back’ this weekend, remember to check your alarms when you change your clocks. Unless you have newer alarms with 10-year sealed batteries, this is a good time to replace the alkaline batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms or replace the entire device if it’s more than 10 years old.”
“Carbon monoxide is the leading cause of poisoning deaths in the United States,” he said. “The primary sources of carbon monoxide in the home are furnaces and other fuel-burning appliances. We can’t see, smell, or taste carbon monoxide, so it’s important to have working CO alarms to alert you to this invisible killer.”
According to Chief Stats, ”Smoke alarms are like any other household appliances: they don’t last forever.  Alarm manufacturing dates are printed on the back of the device. Smoke alarms usually need to be replaced after 10 years, and carbon monoxide alarms after five to seven years. If the date on your alarm is more than 10 years ago, or if there’s no date at all, it’s time to replace it.”

State fire code requires replacement battery-operated smoke alarms in older one- and two-family homes to be photoelectric and have 10-year, sealed, non-replaceable, non-rechargeable batteries and a hush feature, according to authorities.

“We see too many disabled smoke alarms at fire scenes where people really needed them to work,” Stats said. “Fire officials hope that if smoke alarms are easier to maintain, like those with long-life batteries, people will keep them in use rather than disabling them or forgetting to change out the batteries.”

Modern fires burn faster, fire officials explained, due to changes in construction and manufacturing. In the average house fire, people usually have only on to three minutes to escape after the smoke alarm sounds, according to Stats.

Working alarms can give people more time in case of emergency.

“No one expects to be a victim of a fire, but the best way to survive one is to have working smoke alarms.  Take a few minutes to protect those you love by changing the batteries in your smoke alarms this weekend. And if you have parents, grandparents, or older neighbors who might need a hand, volunteer to check their alarms and change their batteries, too.”

Almost 40% of fire deaths from last year involved adults over the age of 65, More than 200 Massachusetts fire departments have grant-funded Senior SAFE programs to help support older residents.

North Reading seniors who are looking for help testing, maintaining or replacing smoke alarms can contact the North Reading Fire Department or senior center for assistance.