By Family Features

Adopting simple habits can make a huge impact in saving lives. Help keep your friends and family safe in their homes year-round by encouraging them to take easy safety measures, such as remembering to replace smoke alarm batteries at least once a year.

Reducing the number of home fire fatalities is the goal that Energizer and the International Association of Fire Chiefs set out to accomplish when the Change Your Clock Change Your Battery campaign was created 19 years ago. Today, both organizations, along with thousands of fire departments nationwide, spend countless hours spreading the message of fire safety in communities. First and foremost, remember to change the batteries in your smoke alarms each year when you adjust your clocks from daylight-saving time. It is a simple step that many people take for granted.

What Is Daylight-Saving Time?

The original idea for daylight-saving time came in 1784 from Benjamin Franklin , a founding founder of the United States and one of America ’s most famous inventors. The main purpose of daylight-saving time was to make better use of daylight. Clocks are changed during summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening and are changed back in the fall. Arizona and Hawaii are the only two U.S. states that do not participate in daylight-saving time.

Do’s and Don’ts to Help Keep You and Your Family Safe

Do:

—Remember: Change Your Clock Change Your Battery . It is a good reminder to put fresh Energizer batteries in your smoke alarms when changing your clocks back from daylight-saving time.

—Have at least one working smoke alarm on each level of your home.

—Make sure your family has a planned fire escape route.

—Install carbon monoxide detectors outside each sleeping area.

—Test smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors monthly to make sure they work.

—Maintain carbon monoxide detectors as you do smoke alarms by regularly installing fresh batteries.

—Use flashlights rather than candles to light your home during power outages. A flashlight such as an Energizer Weather Ready 8-LED lantern runs for more than 245 hours on a single set of batteries.

—Keep a battery-powered radio available for power outages.

—Keep extra Energizer Max batteries on hand in various sizes for radios, flashlights and smoke detectors.

Don’t:

—Remove smoke alarm batteries without replacing them with fresh ones. This increases the risk of needless fire fatalities.

—Rely on your sense of smell to alert you that you are in danger of being trapped during a fire or poisoned by carbon monoxide.

—Ignore the chirping sound your smoke alarm makes when maintenance is required.

—Use your oven to heat your home.

—Place portable or fixed space heaters near combustible materials or leave heaters unattended.

—Leave candles burning unattended.

M ake a disaster relief supply kit of your own.

Some important items to include are:

—First aid kit

—Blankets and/or sleeping bags

—At least a three-day supply of water. (Store three gallons of water for each person per day)

—A minimum three-day supply of nonperishable foods

—Personal care items

—Medications

—Flashlights and extra Energizer Max brand batteries

—Battery-powered radio and spare batteries

—Extra batteries for necessary medical devices

—Plastic garbage bags and ties

—Tools

—Copies of important documents (kept in waterproof containers)

For more information, please visit www.energizer.com.

How safe is your home?

Did You Know?

—A working smoke alarm more than doubles your chances of surviving a home fire.

—On average, 1,000 children die every year in home fires.

—Children and senior citizens are twice as likely to die in a home fire.

—Nineteen million homes are at needless risk for home fire fatalities.

—The peak time for home fire fatalities is between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. when most people are sleeping and the house is dark.

—The smell of smoke will not wake you up during a fire.

—Candle fires accounted for an estimated 5 percent of all reported home fires.

Beyond regularly changing smoke alarm batteries, there are other easy precautions you can take to keep yourself and your family safe. Prepare ahead of time for the possibility of natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and power outages.