This is Fire Prevention Week (October 6-12), but the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates that about
16 million homes in the U.S. have smoke alarms that do not work.
The reason? The batteries are dead or missing. Since most of the
U.S. will gain an hour when Daylight Savings Time ends on
Sunday, October 27, the CPSC recommends that consumers make good
use of the extra hour by changing their smoke alarm batteries
and testing the alarms to ensure they work properly. "Parents
and children should make safety a family tradition by changing
the batteries in their smoke alarms annually. They should also
be tested monthly to make sure they're operating," said CPSC
Chairman Hal Stratton. "Make fire safety a family activity."
Fire is the second leading cause of unintentional death in the
home. Each year, nearly 2,700 people die in residential fires,
and there are more than 330,000 residential fires reported to
fire departments. About 90 percent of U.S. households have smoke
alarms installed. However