(Radio Iowa) – Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday and it has become a tradition to test your smoke alarms while also turning clocks ahead one hour. Sioux City Fire Lieutenant John Nelson says it’s important to make sure the detectors are working.

“It’s always important to make sure that all of our safety equipment works in our house. And that is a good reminder to check our smoke alarms and making sure that they are current, they’re within the ten-year window,” he says. “If you look on the back of your smoke alarms, you can see almost like a manufactured date. And the manufacturer suggests they have a ten-year lifetime.

Nelson says many new smoke detectors have a sealed battery that you don’t need to change for ten years. He says you should still check them. “Like anything, it doesn’t always mean they’re going to last the full 10 years, and it’s always important to test the functionality of those smoke alarms to make sure that they are still working,” Nelson says. Many smoke detectors also have a carbon monoxide alarm with them.

Nelson says check that detector as well and replace it if it is not working. Also be sure the devices are put in the right place. “People that do have them typically keep them next to their furnaces down in the basement. Unfortunately, when we need them to alert us is at night when we’re sleeping,” Nelson says. “So we always recommend having them outside our sleeping quarters, whether it’s in the hallway or even in the bedrooms themselves.”

Nelson says working smoke alarms cut the risk of dying in a home fire in half, as you only have about two minutes to escape in most instances.