Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery is a great annual tradition tied to the time change to help remind us to take an important step to help bolster home fire safety. As you are probably aware, tonight we Spring Forward -- which is a nice way of saying "you get to loose an hour of sleep". As annoying as the loss of sleep is, it is still a good chance to take a look at your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, change the batteries and make sure they are in good working order. Too often, these intentionally piercing devices are the first warning that something in the house is not right and you need to check it out or get out.
For more info on smoke alarms, the National Fire Protection Association has a great site for fire/home safety at http://nfpa.org and has some great videos, including the one below, on their Youtube site http://www.youtube.com/user/nfpadotorg on a variety of safety subjects.
NFPA Smoke Alarm Video
Truth is, the best protection for you and your family against a disaster are simple steps like checking smoke alarms, developing a family communications plan, and putting an emergency kit together. So, as the time changes this Spring, be sure to check your smoke alarm batteries, but also take a minute to develop a communications plan to ensure family members know how to get in touch with each other during an emergency, put together an emergency kit, and talk through what you or your family might do in the event of an emergency.
Information on preparing for Colorado emergencies can be found at READYColorado - http://readycolorado.gov.
