Change your clock, change your battery

Published 10:30 am Sunday, March 12, 2017

Don’t forget to change your clocks on Sunday morning as we “spring forward” one hour, beginning at 2 a.m. and go to Daylight Savings Time, the Puget Sound Fire Authority reminds you.

Changing your clock is a great time to also change the batteries of your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Batteries that are wearing out can affect the reliability of these life-saving devices. A working smoke alarm can reduce the chance of you dying in a house fire by almost 60 percent.

While you have the cover off your alarms, take a moment and vacuum them out and check the manufacturing date that’s printed on the inside or back. Smoke and CO alarms have a life expectancy of approximately 10 years. If yours are that old or you are not sure how old they are, replace them.

Fire fact: There are more homes in this country with nonworking smoke alarms than homes without any smoke alarms.