As daylight saving time ends on Sunday the American Red Cross encourages everyone to test their smoke alarms as they turn their clocks back to help prevent deaths from home fires, which claim more lives in a typical year than all natural disasters combined.
Barry Porter, Regional CEO for the American Red Cross Eastern / North Carolina Region says working smoke alarms can cut the risk of dying in a home fire by half.
Over the past month, local Red Cross volunteers responded to help 306 people suddenly displaced in Eastern North Carolina by 100 home fires.