Director of Commerce Donna Owens and State Fire Marshal James J. McNamee recommend that Ohioans make a potentially lifesaving change when changing their clocks back from Daylight Savings Time on Sunday October 25: Change the batteries in your smoke detectors!

In conjunction with the annual public education program “Change Your Clocks, Change Your Batteries,” the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of State Fire Marshal and local fire departments encourage Ohioans to make it a habit to change the batteries in their smoke detectors on a regular basis.

“When you have one or more working smoke detectors in your home, you double your chances of surviving a fire,” State Fire Marshal McNamee said. The smoke detector alerts you when a fire is still in its early stages, so that you and your family have more time to escape. But like any other home appliance, smoke detectors must be properly maintained. Fire Marshal McNamee says that the detectors, which should be placed on every level of the home including the basement, should be checked monthly and the batteries should be changed at least once a year.

In 1997, there were nearly 15,000 fires in Ohio homes. Only half of those homes were equipped with smoke detectors. Tragically, even when fires struck homes where detectors were installed, one out of every three detectors failed to operate. This resulted in 23 deaths, emphasizing the need to maintain smoke detectors by regularly changing batteries and testing the detectors.

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The Division of State Fire Marshal is part of the Ohio Department of Commerce. The Fire Marshal's Office trains firefighters, enforces the Ohio Fire Code, investigates the cause and origins of fires and explosions, provides fire prevention programs, and performs other services. Other Commerce divisions enforce regulations regarding industrial compliance, financial institutions, liquor, real estate, securities, auctioneers, unclaimed funds and private investigators, among others. The department's internet address is www.com.state.oh.us.