Check Your Smoke Detectors for Spring Forward

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Three different house fires in the past 24 hours claimed the lives of four people and left two in critical condition.

Those are injuries and deaths firefighters said could have been prevented. That's why fire officials are reminding people as you move your clocks forward, you also need to check your smoke detector batteries.

One of the four fire related deaths in the last 24 hours happened at a house with no working smoke detectors. Without the fire warning, the elderly woman who was inside had no time to get out.

The U.S. Fire Administration uses these statistics to show why smoke detectors are so important:

• Two-thirds of reported residential fire deaths occurred in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
• An estimated two out of every 10 homes in the U.S. do not have working smoke alarms, primarily because of missing or dead batteries.
• Fire deaths have been cut in half since smoke detectors were first introduced in the late 1970s.

"We would like to put a firefighter on every corner, but unfortunately we can't do that. But, if you have a working smoke detector in your house, that's essentially putting a firefighter in your house," Oklahoma City Fire Batt. Chief Tommy Lago said.

Fire officials said there is absolutely no reason why homes should be without smoke detectors because if you need one, your local fire station hands them out for free and will even come out and install one for you.