Officials: Change smoke alarm batteries for Daylight Saving Time

The City of Joliet is urging residents to use the start of Daylight Saving Time as an opportunity to help prevent deaths from home fires.

In a statement issued last week, Joliet officials reminded residents to change the batteries in their smoke alarms and carbon monoxide when they adjust their clocks on Sunday.

“There are approximately 350,000 residential fires each year in the United States, resulting in 2,500 deaths,” Joliet Fire Chief Joe Formhals said in the statement. “Statistics show that 60% of these deaths occurred in fires where there was no working smoke detector present.”

Officials said the batteries in smoke alarms should be changed twice a year, while the alarms themselves should be replaced about every 10 years.