Check Your Smoke Alarms

The 442nd Civil Engineers Squadron wants to remind people that daylight saving time is a perfect time to replace the batteries in their smoke alarms. The 442nd CES is part of the 442nd Fighter Wing, an Air Force Reserve unit at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. Credit: (U.S. Air Force graphic/Senior Airman Danielle Wolf)

Don’t forget to spring your clocks forward this coming Sunday, March 11. And while you’re doing that, it’s a great time to check your smoke alarms.

The Oregon Fire Marshal is urging people not just to change the batteries in the life-saving—although irritating when the batteries die—alarms because of the technological advances in smoke alarms over the last decade.

“Smoke alarm technology has advanced and many now come with 10-year batteries and some are tamper-resistant,” State Fire Marshal Jim Walker said in a press release.

According to the press release, Oregon law requires ionization-only smoke alarms that are solely battery powered to come equipped with a hush feature and a 10-year battery, hence the marshal’s insistence in checking devices to make sure they work.

The following list is recommended for testing fire alarms:

Push the test button to be sure the battery works;
Follow the manufacturing instructions for changing the battery, ensuring you use the correct type;
Always retest your device after replacing the batteries;
Replace any alarm that fails to operate after replacing batteries;
Replace any alarms that are older than 10 years. The manufacture date should be on the back of the device. If there is no date information, replace the alarm;
Follow the manufacturing instructions for cleaning alarms.

This article appears in Mar 7-14, 2018.