DeKalb Fire Rescue: Change Your Batteries When You Fall Back

DeKalb Fire and Rescue, The Home Depot and Energizer are hosting a fire safety awareness event Tuesday, Oct. 7, from noon to 3 p.m., at The Home Depot located at 2295 Lawrenceville Highway in Decatur.

The event will encourage DeKalb-area residents to change the batteries in their smoke detectors when they change their clocks at the end of Daylight Saving Time on Nov. 2.

“We are pleased to discuss and remind the community about this very important message that despite the latest statistics on loss of life due to fire, smoke alarms have attributed to the saving of thousands of lives,” said DeKalb County Fire Rescue Fire Chief Darnell Fullum in a news release.

According to the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, “Deaths from fires and burns are the fifth most common cause of unintentional injury death in the United States and about half of home fire deaths occur in homes without smoke alarms. Also, having a smoke alarm reduces the risk of dying in a house fire by 50 percent.”

Each day, on average three children die in home fires - 1,000 children each year. About 3,600 children are injured in house fires each year, the department says.