After two separate house fires claimed the lives of two people here in the Sioux Empire over the weekend, the folks with Sioux Falls Fire Rescue are sounding the alarm for residents to double-check their smoke detectors right away!

Dakota News Now is reporting that the one thing both Sioux Falls house fires had in common was there were no functioning smoke detectors in either home.

Let's be honest with each other smoke detectors can be somewhat of a pain in the butt at times. I don't know about your alarms, but the batteries in mine seem to have the propensity to go south 9 out of 10 times in the middle of the night.

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Does this sound familiar? That annoying little high-pitched chirp will go off around 2:35 in the morning, which causes your dog to start barking. And then you spend the next twenty-plus minutes attempting to determine what room's smoke detector needs a new battery. Then you end up waking up the entire household once you change the batteries and hit the reset button on the smoke alarm that has gone bad.

Yeah, it's a pain alright, but it's one of those pains in the butt that could very well save you and your family's life.

Sioux Falls Fire Inspector Brandon Fey told Dakota News Now that their average response time as a department was just over six minutes last year. That’s six minutes from when a call was made for help.

Here's something that's really frightening!

Fire studies have shown that a blaze can double in size every minute. If you don't have working smoke detectors, that fire will keep doubling in size every minute until someone in the house hopefully wakes up. A scary thought to say the least.

According to Dakota News Now, Sioux Falls residents actually have free access to smoke alarms by simply calling 211. The program will not only give you free smoke detectors, but they will also provide you with tips on how to check them and install them.

Inspector Fey recommends that every Sioux Falls resident gets in the habit of testing their smoke alarms every month. The batteries should be replaced twice a year, and it's also wise to swap out your smoke detectors with a new one every ten years.

Additional smoke detector tips and reminders can be found by checking out the Sioux Falls Fire Rescue Smoke Alarm Program and the Helpline Center 211.

Source: Dakota News Now

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