Sunday marks the beginning of Daylight Savings Time and that means moving your clocks ahead one hour (spring forward) before retiring for the evening Saturday. It is also a great time to think about fire safety, according to fire safety professionals.

As Sunday nears, Savannah Fire and Emergency Services encourages citizens to take a few minutes to replace the batteries in all smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors in their homes, as well as changing the time on their clocks.

According to the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), a home fire death occurs somewhere in the nation approximately every three hours, and 80 percent of those occur in homes without working smoke alarms. The IAFC is in its 24th year of its “Change Your Clock, Change Your Batteries” campaign, which urges all Americans to adopt the simple lifesaving habit. Changing the batteries in alarms and detectors is one of the simplest ways to ensure proper operation of the devices and notification in the event of a fire in your home.

Fire officials also say this is an excellent time to practice home fire escape plans. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimates that less than half of all Americans have practiced an escape plan. Citizens are encouraged to create a plan that identifies at least two ways out of every room and to have a designated meeting place a safe distance from the home.