When you change your clock this Sunday, Nov. 2, as Daylight Saving Time ends, Eastside Fire and Rescue urges you to change the batteries in your smoke detector. It’s a way of preventing fires.

Smoke alarms have become such a common feature in our homes that it is easy to take them for granted.

Almost two thirds of home deaths resulted from fires in properties without properly working smoke alarms.

During the period of 2005 to 2009, smoke alarms were present in almost three-quarters of reported home fires and sounded in half of the home fires reported to U.S. fire departments.

More than one-third of home fire deaths resulted from fires in which no smoke alarms were present at all.

Twenty-five percent of deaths were caused by fires in properties in which smoke alarms were present, but failed to operate.

Smoke alarm failures usually result from missing, disconnected, or dead batteries.