Check Your Smoke Detector Batteries For Daylight Savings Time
Mahaska County Emergency Management
Oskaloosa, Iowa – This Sunday March 11, 2012 is Daylight savings time, a time people love if you work nights and hate if you work days. Love it or hate it this day isn’t just a day that you change the time on all the clocks in the house; it’s a day that could potentially save you and/or your loved ones lives.
How can this save your life???
Simple this day is also a day that you should test and change the batteries in your homes carbon monoxide detectors, smoke detectors, and weather radios. This little thing can truly mean the difference between life and death.
DID YOU KNOW??
According to the CDC carbon monoxide exposures account for 15,000 ER visits and 500 unintentional deaths in the United States every year. Over half of these exposures had detectors that were faulty or had batteries missing.
Carbon Monoxide is a “SILENT KILLER” you don’t know you’re being exposed until it’s too late
Each year, nearly 3,000 people die in US home fires.
FIRES ARE THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH IN CHILDREN
In more than half of the reported home fires in which the smoke alarms were present but did not operate because batteries were missing or disconnected. Nuisance alarms were the leading reason for disconnected alarms.
Alarms should be replaced every 8-10 years regardless if they go off when you test them.
Smoke alarms and CO detectors cut the risk of dying IN HALF!
Don’t be a statistic! How you ask?
This Sunday please take a second to test, change, or replace these lifesaving tools. Once they are all working and you think “we are good to go” take a second to discuss your plans with the whole family. Make sure kids know where to go when the fire alarm goes off, or what to do if a severe weather alert has been issued.
Better to practice now than when it’s too late!!
Jamey A. Robinson, CEM www.mahaskaready.com
