CAL FIRE Says It's Time to Fall Back

As we prepare to fall back one hour this November 7, 2010, the CAL FIRE San Bernardino Unit wants to remind you to make a change that could save your life and that of your family – changing the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.

Communities throughout California and the Nation are witness to tragic home fire deaths and injuries every year. Approximately every three hours a home fire death occurs somewhere in the nation with 80-percent of those fires happening in homes without working smoke alarms. Non-working smoke alarms rob residents of the protective benefits they were designed to provide.

Changing the batteries in these life saving devices at least once a year is one of the simplest forms of insurance you can have. In fact, working smoke alarms reduce by nearly half the risk of dying in a home fire. Additionally, how old is your smoke alarm? The International Association of Fire Chiefs recommends replacing your smoke alarms every ten years.

“The peak time for home fire fatalities is between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. when most families are asleep,” says CAL FIRE San Bernardino Unit Chief Doug McKain. According to CAL FIRE San Bernardino Unit Fire Prevention Battalion Chief Bart Chambers, “Smoke alarm maintenance is a simple, effective way to reduce home fire deaths and injuries. Children and senior citizens are most at risk, and a working smoke alarm can give them the extra seconds they need to get out safely.” For more fire safety information you can go to http://www.fire.ca.gov/