Daylight Savings Time changes are here, so you should set your clocks ahead one hour before going to bed Saturday night. Along with this, Altus Fire Chief J.R. Wheeler suggests changing the batteries in your smoke detectors.

Chances are about 95 percent of you have a smoke alarm in your home, 20 percent do not work due to worn or missing batteries- this means nearly 19 million homes are at needless risk nationwide! A working Smoke Alarm and Carbon Monoxide (CO) Alarm can provide the critical extra seconds people need to escape a tragedy. Over 6,000 deaths occur in house fires each year. Most people die from smoke and toxic gases rather than the fire itself. The peak time for home fatalities is between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when most families are sleeping.

This is the time to protect your family from the tragedy of fire and CO poisoning by putting new batteries in your alarms! To increase the odds for more than 22,000 Altus citizens who could be at risk. Wheeler is also urging people to check their Carbon Monoxide alarm batteries every month and replace batteries twice a year when we do the time change.

The Altus Fire Department has had for many years a program sponsored by Altus Firefighters Local 2749 providing and installing smoke detectors and batteries to homeowners that can’t afford them, at no charge. For those citizens living in rental property, the owner of that property is required by law to provide them with a working smoke detector.

Replacing Smoke and Carbon Monoxide alarm batteries twice a year is one of the simplest, most effective ways to reduce the number of deaths and injuries related to poisoning and home fires. A working Smoke Alarm and development of a home escape plan, along with yearly home fire drills, more than doubles your chances of surviving a home fire. Without working Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarms to act as an early warning device, fire and poisonous gases can spread unnoticed throughout the household, blocking escape routes and filling rooms with deadly smoke and toxic gases.