Firefighters from the Bellevue Fire Department and volunteers from Bartell Drugs will canvass a Bellevue neighborhood Oct. 29 to hand out free smoke alarms and batteries. The effort is part of the Change Your Clock Change Your Battery program that coincides with the change in daylight savings time.

Daylight savings time ends on Nov. 3.

Nationally, 38 percent of fatal fire injuries occur in homes without working smoke alarms and 24 percent occur in homes in which at least one smoke alarm is present, but fails to operate, frequently due to dead or missing batteries.

Fire officials offer the following safety tips:

• Test your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors monthly to make sure they are working.
• Have at least one working smoke alarm on each level of your home.
• Plan, discuss and practice an escape route with your family for dangerous situations such as home fires, carbon monoxide leaks and natural disasters.
• Do not rely on your sense of smell to alert you that you and/or your family are in danger of being trapped during a fire or from a carbon monoxide leak.
• Be sure not to ignore the chirping sound your smoke alarm makes when maintenance is required.
• Use flashlights or flameless candles rather than candles to light your home during power outages.
• Carbon monoxide detectors are NOT substitutes for smoke alarms.