Daylight Saving Time is a reminder to check smoke alarms: fire chief

While the Daylight Savings time-change on Sunday means spring is around the corner, firefighters say it also marks a time you should check your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Hamilton’s fire chief, Dave Cunliffe, says a recent hike in deadly blazes in homes without working smoke alarms across the city make this year’s biannual reminder to test detectors especially important.

“Over the last five years, the number of residential fires that did not have working smoke alarms in Hamilton has increased to 53 per cent in 2021 and 51 per cent in 2022,” Cunliffe said.

“Today, fires are burning hotter and faster, which means that people don’t have as much time to get out. We need to make sure they have early warning in their home and that early warning is through a working smoke alarm.”

The Ontario Fire Marshal has said a fire that claimed the lives of four people, including two children, on Dec. 29 happened in a Hamilton Mountain townhouse with no working smoke alarms.

Six people were found in the home at 14 Derby St. and transported to hospital, where four of them were pronounced dead.

READ MORE: No working smoke alarms during Hamilton house fire that killed four: officials

Nearly two months later, two people were killed and five others injured in a fire at a home on Century St. in Hamilton that also had not working smoke alarms, according to early evidence.

“It really starts to prove the point that you need to have early warning to be able to have an opportunity to escape,” Cunliffe said.

Hamilton’s fire chief recommended testing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors every month, replacing the batteries every six months and replacing the units themselves when they expire, which is every ten years.

READ MORE: Initial evidence shows no working smoke alarms in fatal Hamilton house fire

By law, every home in Ontario must have a working smoke alarm on every storey and outside all sleeping areas.

A working carbon monoxide detector is required in the province next to each sleeping area of a home if it has a fuel-burning appliance, fireplace or an attached garage.

The Daylight Savings time-change will take place at 2 a.m. on Sunday.

WATCH MORE: How to lessen the impact of Daylight Saving Time on your sleep