Change your clock, change your battery!  Your life depends on it!

Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday, November 2nd.  As you turn your clocks back, Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue reminds residents to change the batteries in their smoke alarms.  Smoke alarms provide early warning allowing you time to escape a home fire.

When properly installed and maintained, working smoke alarms save lives and protect against injury and loss due to fire.  You double your chances of surviving a home fire with working smoke alarms compared to homes without working smoke alarms (http://www.pwcgov.org/SmokeAlarms).

Here are some startling facts, Department of Fire & Rescue would like you to consider:

• In 2011, U.S. fire departments responded to 370,000 home fires which caused 13,910 injuries, 2,520 deaths, and $6.9 billion in direct damage.

• On average, seven people died in U.S. home fires per day from 2007-2011.

• In 2007 – 2011, smoke alarms sounded in half of the home fires reported to fire departments in the U.S.

• Three out of five (60%) home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.

• No smoke alarms were present in more than one-third (37%) of the home fire deaths.