It's Fire Prevention Week in local communities.

This year's theme is 'Don't Wait, Check The Date' and local fire departments pushing home owners to make sure their smoke detectors are up to date and expired.

Okotoks Fire Chief Ken Thevenot says you should be switching out your detectors ten years after the original manufacturing date.

"I've had people call us saying 'My detector is 30 years old and it's still working fine' well the problem is that at the time when you want it to work it may not work," he says. "There's a manufacturing date on each smoke detecting device, so if you check that date to say it's good for ten years then change it."

Thevenot says if you do notice your detector is expired, they aren't expensive to replace.

"They range from $20, $30, $40 you can get them at $60 or $70 depending on the different styles. There's carbon monoxide detector also that fall into that range as well but you can get multi-use detectors that have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors with a lithium battery that are good for ten years."

During the week Fire Services is encouraging residents to sign-up for the department's free home inspection program and Thevenot says the first thing they check on their inspections is if smoke detectors are in good working order.

"We did checks at 60 or 70 homes we got into and we found a number of homes that their smoke detectors were not working properly, there was homes that both upstairs and on the basement floor either smoke detector were working and residents had no idea they were even working."

For more on the home inspection program and Fire Prevention Week visit the link here.

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