State Fire Marshal reminds Nevadans to replace smoke alarm batteries with time change
The Nevada Department of Public Safety State Fire Marshal reminds residents that when setting clocks forward one hour for Daylight Savings Time, which occurs at 2 a.m. this Sunday morning, March 11, it is also a good time to check smoke alarms and change their batteries.
"We want to eliminate fire deaths and burn injuries and maintain fire safety for our residents," said State Fire Marshal Bart Chambers.
According to the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) 2015 Report:
— Smoke alarms provide an early warning of a fire, giving people additional escape time. From 2009-2013, smoke alarms sounded in more than half (53 percent) of the home fires reported to U.S. fire departments.
— Three of every five home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms (38 percent) or no working smoke alarms (21 percent).
— The death rate per 100 reported home fires was more than twice as high in homes that did not have any working smoke alarms compared to the rate in homes with working smoke alarms.
— In fires in which the smoke alarms were present but did not operate, almost half (46 percent) of the smoke alarms had missing or disconnected batteries.
— Dead batteries caused one-quarter (24 percent) of the smoke alarm failures.
The NFPA recommends testing smoke alarms at least once a month, replacing smoke alarms after 10 years, and changing batteries at least twice a year.
A good way to help remember to do this is to replace batteries when the time changes twice a year: Springing forward for daylight savings time and falling back to standard time.
For fire prevention and safety education information, visit http://fire.nv.gov/