Officials with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, along with local firefighters, are reminding area residents that as they turn their clocks back one hour today, they should also install fresh batteries in their smoke alarms and replace alarms that are 10 years old.

State Fire Marshal Jerry Rosendahl said about 90 percent of American homes have smoke alarms, but about one-third of those alarms don’t work because of age or dead or missing batteries.

“Smoke alarms are at work every minute of every day, and after several years, the sensors wear out,” Rosendahl said in a news release. “They should be replaced before you discover the hard way that they’re not working anymore.”

In 2007, 26 percent of Minnesota fire deaths took place in homes without working smoke alarms, according to the release. Most home fire fatalities happen during the winter months in the night when residents are asleep.

Albert Lea Fire Capt. Lee DeVries said fatalities are more likely to occur during the winter because of problems with heating equipment and with homes being closed up. There’s also potential for more carbon monoxide problems.

He encouraged people to make sure they have operating smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.

If people are even thinking there’s some sort of problem with their heating equipment, they should have it checked.

“Don’t waste any time getting it checked out,” DeVries said. “And be careful with everything you do.”

On average, people have two minutes to escape in a residential fire, Rosendahl said.

“Fires you see on TV are nothing like real fires,” DeVries said. “They get black — and they get black fast.”

The minute people are alerted to a fire they should get out, he said.

Smoke alarms should be installed outside each bedroom and on every level of the home. Families should have an escape plan to follow if an alarm sounds. Alarms should be tested once a month to ensure they’re working properly.

Nationwide, deaths from fires are the fifth most common cause of unintentional injury deaths. In fact, on average in the United States in 2006, someone died in a fire about every 162 minutes, and someone was injured every 32 minutes.