LEWISTON — Because of a donation from the Lewiston Firefighters Association, all Lewiston fire apparatus are now equipped with 9-volt batteries that will be provided and installed free-of-charge to any resident who is in need of a replacement smoke detector or battery.

All too often fire crews find missing smoke detector batteries, when a simple installation would provide lifesaving early notification of the need to evacuate a home and call 911.

Smoke alarm failures usually result from missing, disconnected, or dead batteries. People are most likely to remove or disconnect batteries because of nuisance noises such as a “chirping sound” to warn of a low battery. Local 785 warns that three out of five home fire deaths result from fires with no on-site working smoke alarm. Ninety six percent of U.S. households report having at least one smoke alarm, but Local 785 stresses that alarms must be in working order to be lifesaving.

The risk of dying in reported home structure fires is cut in half in homes with working smoke alarms, often times alerting a sleeping occupant. The death rate for home fires is more than twice as high in homes that do not have any working smoke alarms.