Change Your Clocks, Check Your Detectors: Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Sunday Safety Reminder
The clocks went back at 2 a.m. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue wants the same morning used for the other twice-a-year job: testing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and changing the batteries that can be changed.
Miami-Dade woke up an hour earlier on Sunday, and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue wants the gained hour spent on a detector. Ahead of the November 1 time change, the department urged county residents to make sure the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in their homes are working properly, in a reminder issued Friday and reported this weekend. Its message is the one firefighters repeat every time the clocks move: change your clocks, change your batteries.
The check depends on which detector is on the ceiling. Many residents do not know the distinction between models, the department's smoke alarm safety guidance explains: alarms with replaceable nine-volt batteries should get fresh batteries twice a year, while sealed models with 10-year lithium batteries should not be opened at all — when a sealed unit reaches the end of its life, the whole alarm is replaced, not the battery.
The department suggests using the same weekend for the rest of the household pass: inspect electrical cords for fraying, clean dryer vents and heating systems, keep fire extinguishers where they can actually be reached, and practice the family fire escape plan so every person in the house knows two ways out.
It is a five-minute job with an outsized payoff, and Sunday morning is built for it — the hour is already in hand, the ladder is already out for the clocks that still need changing by hand, and a working detector is the one alarm a sleeping house cannot do without.
