Spring Forward 2013 and Change Smoke Detectors

Daylight Saving Time begins this weekend, and Patch urges residents to change the batteries in their smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors when they spring forward.

The time change will take place at 2 a.m. Sunday.

Do you have enough smoke detectors in your home or business? The New Hyde Park Fire Department has a page dedicated to smoke detectors and fire safety tips.

From the NHPFD:

Every year in the United States, about 3,000 people lose their lives in residential fires. In a fire, smoke and deadly gases tend to spread farther and faster than heat. That's one reason why most fire victims die from inhalation of smoke and toxic gases, not as a result of burns. A majority of fatal fires happen when families are asleep because occupants are unaware of the fire until there is not adequate time to escape. A smoke alarm stands guard around the clock and, when it first senses smoke, it sounds a shrill alarm. This often allows a family the precious but limited time it takes to escape.

About two-thirds of home fire deaths occur in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms. Properly installed and maintained smoke alarms are considered to be one of the best and least expensive means of providing an early warning of a potentially deadly fire and could reduce the risk of dying from a fire in your home by almost half.

About two-thirds of our nation's fire deaths happen in the victim's own home. The home is where we are at the greatest risk and where we must take the most precautions. Most deaths occur from inhaling smoke or poisonous gases, not from the flames.

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