Wellesley fire chief reminds you to check smoke & CO alarms this weekend

smoke alarms

Wellesley Fire Chief Rick DeLorie reminds residents, while they’re setting their clocks ahead this weekend for daylight saving time, to check their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors — and he’s not just talking about replacing the batteries.

“Smoke alarms, like other household appliances, don’t last forever,” said DeLorie, president of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of Massachusetts. “Every ten years the entire alarm needs to be replaced, not just the batteries.”

The state fire code recently changed to require replacement battery-operated smoke alarms to have 10-year, sealed, non-replaceable, non-rechargeable batteries in older one- and two-family homes. DeLorie said, “Fire officials hope that if we make smoke alarms easier for people to maintain, they will take care of them. We see too many disabled smoke alarms in fires when people really needed them to work.”

DeLorie encourages people to check on parents’ and older neighbors’ alarms as well. Seniors can also contact local fire departments for assistance.