Time to Check Smoke Detector Batteries

Fire officials are asking Ventura County residents to change their smoke detector batteries when they set their clocks back an hour for daylight-savings time on Sunday.

A working smoke detector lowers the risk of dying in a house fire by nearly 50%, according to a report provided by the Oxnard Fire Department.

The “Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery” campaign was launched in the late 1980s to counter an increase in home fire deaths in the United States, despite the widespread use of smoke detectors.

In the United States, a residential house fire breaks out every 66 seconds, giving the country one of the worst fire death rates--estimated at 5,000 annually--in the industrialized world. The report rated the period between 2 and 5 a.m. as the peak time for residential fire fatalities.