It’s that time: Change your clocks, change your batteries

Every apartment in Texas is required by law to be equipped with at least one smoke alarm — those annoying little devices that always seem to go off when you have a bit of a cooking mishap or start chirping in the middle of the night.

Well, that annoying little device can save your life. According to the National Fire Protection Association, almost 60 percent of home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms, or with smoke alarms that didn’t work. Moreover, the death rate in home fires was more than twice as high in homes with no working smoke alarms.

What is even more devastating, in fires in which smoke alarms were present but did not operate, more than 40 percent of the smoke alarms simply had missing or disconnected batteries, and dead batteries caused 25 percent of the smoke alarm failures.

This November, the Houston Apartment Association has a simple but important recommendation: Change your clocks and change your batteries.

Last weekend, the U.S. “fell back” from daylight savings time to standard time, changing clocks forward to daylight savings time in the spring. Whenever you change your clocks, it’s a good idea to change your smoke alarm batteries. Your apartment property is required by law to provide a working smoke alarm when you move in, but most apartment leases make it your responsibility to change the batteries.

Changing smoke alarm batteries is easy, but if you’re not sure how to do it, if you don’t have a stepladder, or you’re not able to reach the alarm, ask your apartment manager for help. Most properties have maintenance technicians who have changed hundreds — maybe thousands — of smoke alarm batteries. They should be more than happy to give you a hand.

Keep in mind, your apartment may have more than one alarm. In most cities, an alarm is required inside, and adjacent to each bedroom. Depending on the floor plan, a three-bedroom apartment might have as many as five smoke alarms. Five smoke alarms mean you need to change five batteries.

Some older apartment properties in the City of Houston are in the process of transitioning to a new type of smoke alarm — a sealed, tamper-resistant alarm with a 10-year lithium power source. If your apartment has these, there’s nothing you need to do — there’s no battery for you to change. If you’re not sure which kind of alarm you have, ask your apartment manager.

Whatever type of alarm you have, there’s a test button you should press regularly just in case. If you have any doubt about your smoke alarm working, make a maintenance request in writing immediately.

Apartment fires are dangerous but they are preventable, and safety in apartment properties is a shared responsibility between owners and residents. Do your part to prevent any more needless tragedies.