Plymouth Fire Chief Richard Kline reminds you to change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms this weekend when you move your clocks ahead for daylight savings time.
 
Fresh batteries allow smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to do their jobs of saving lives by alerting families of a fire or a buildup of deadly carbon monoxide in their homes.
 
Two-thirds of fire deaths occur in homes where there are no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
 
Most deadly residential fires occur in the home when people are asleep. In less than 30 seconds, a small flame can get completely out of control and turn into a major fire. It only takes minutes for thick black smoke to fill a house or for it to be engulfed in flames. Smoke detectors give residents an early, life-saving alert to evacuate their home. That is why it is important to replace batteries at least once every year and to test your alarms every month to make sure they work.
 
In a recent door-to-door smoke detector awareness campaign, Plymouth firefighters found that in 50 percent of the homes visited had dead batteries in their detectors and 58 percent of the homes had expired or non-working smoke detectors.
 
If you need help changing batteries, please call the Fire Department at 763-509-5198.