Daylight-saving change serves as reminder to check smoke detectors

By SEAN BARRON

news@vindy.com

It’s March, and that means daylight-saving time and with that longer days, warmer weather and more time outdoors.

So, when you get ready to spring ahead Sunday and turn your clocks ahead one hour, it’s also a good time for doing something else important indoors: ensuring that battery-operated smoke detectors are working properly.

And that means taking a few minutes to change the batteries, an inexpensive process that can be the difference between life and death, several area fire officials stress.

“Smoke detectors won’t prevent fires but do save lives and minimize property damage,” Warren Fire Chief Ken Nussle said. Homeowners should change the batteries at least twice annually, though there’s no ironclad rule that it must be done when clocks are set back or ahead; it’s just easier to associate one with the other, Nussle noted.

Nevertheless, the chief said, some people still have the perception “that fires happen to someone else.” It’s common for firefighters to enter homes with detectors containing no batteries or dead ones, he explained.

Also recommending people change their batteries and clocks at the same time is Youngstown Fire Chief John O’Neill, who said he checks his own smoke detector every two months.

After snapping the battery in place, the homeowner should push and hold the button on the device just to be sure it’s functioning, O’Neill advised.

Detectors start at $6 to $7 and usually are no more than $35, he pointed out. They are available in nearly any department or big-box store, the chief noted.

The items save lives by giving an early warning that there’s a possible fire, O’Neill added.

It’s also good to perform a little preventive maintenance by testing detectors monthly to be sure they’re free of dust and debris, then to push the button to hear if they beep, noted Lt. Bill Glaser of the Boardman Fire Department.

Glaser said that people should have a smoke detector on each level of the home, as well as one in each child’s bedroom and one in a hallway.

“Studies show that children are harder to wake up,” Glaser said.

The devices should be on every level of the home because occupants will have the earliest warning if, for example, someone is upstairs and a fire breaks out in the basement, he noted.

“You can be overcome by carbon dioxide and smoke before you even know there’s an emergency,” Glaser warned.