Jackson – This weekend, before turning clocks back one hour for Daylight Saving Time on Sunday, November 5, every Mississippian should change the battery in their smoke alarm or test it to make sure their smoke alarm is in working order, Commissioner of Insurance and State Fire Marshal Mike Chaney declared today.
Of the 42 fire deaths investigated by the State Fire Marshal’s Office so far in 2017, over 75% of them either had no smoke alarm or a non-working smoke alarm present.
“That is just unacceptable,” Chaney said. “I cannot say it any plainer, working smoke alarms save lives. If you do not have a smoke alarm in your home, get one! If you have one, make sure it is in working order! A working smoke alarm cuts your risk of dying in a fire in half.”
In 2016, a working smoke alarm saved the lives of seven Mississippi State University students when the rental house they were living in caught fire.
In the last year, the Mississippi State Fire Marshal’s Office has worked with over a dozen different cities and counties and the Vision 20/20, a national project that is dedicated to providing national strategies in fire prevention across the country, to get 4,000 smoke alarms installed in 1,300 homes.
Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday, November 5, 2017, at 2:00 am, when clocks are set back one hour.
