Communications Office

Change Your Clocks & Check Your Batteries

That time of year is upon us when we change our clocks by 1 hour.  Sunday, November 1st is the date for the change this fall. This is a great time to change the batteries in the smoke alarms in your home as well as testing them, which should be done at least monthly. If you have hardwired smoke alarms with battery back up you should change those batteries as well. If you wait to change the batteries when they chirp, they may or may not work. When testing your alarms and they are interconnected to the other alarms in your home you need to check each device to make sure they are causing the rest of the alarms in the system to sound. There is new technology on the market that will allow smoke alarms to activate other alarms in the system by wireless communication.  No wires that have to be installed by an electrician.    If your smoke alarms are older than 10 years since the alarms were manufactured, they need to be replaced. So Sunday November 1st, “CHANGE YOUR CLOCK! CHANGE YOUR BATTERY!” The Norfolk Fire Division is bringing this message to you.