Daylight Savings Time Is Opportunity to Discuss Fire Safety

While snow may be everywhere, it's still time to "spring ahead" this weekend.

Daylight Savings Time begins 2 a.m. Sunday and, while setting your clock an hour forward, remember to check the batteries in your smoke detector.

Mentor Fire Department recommends replacing the batteries in your smoke detector twice a year. They also suggest testing the alarm every month.

The National Fire Protection Association said death rates are more than twice as high in fires without working smoke alarms as ones in which the smoke detectors work.

The NFPA estimates that 890 lives could be saved each year if all homes had working smoke detectors.

Also, more than half of the nonworking smoke detectors malfunction because they had missing or disconnected batteries. Another 20 percent of smoke detector failures happen because its batteries are dead, according to the NFPA.

So stay safe. Replace and test your smoke detectors' batteries while resetting your clocks.