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Mass. Fire Officials Urge People To Check Smoke Alarms

LYNN, Mass. (CBS/AP) — The state's top fire safety officials are urging people to check the batteries in their smoke alarms or install the devices following a string of fatal blazes in homes without functioning alarms.

Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey said Friday that 28 people have died in house fires in Massachusetts since Dec. 1. In about 60 percent of those cases, there were no working smoke alarms in the home. Nineteen people have died in house fires already this year, including two little girls in Orange last weekend. The home's smoke alarms didn't work.

The news conference was held in Lynn, where four people died in a fire on Dec. 4.

Ostroskey says when people change their clocks this weekend they should replace the batteries in their smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.

"When replacing smoke alarms, I would urge you to consider sealed-battery, long-life units," he said. "No more chirping batteries at 3 a.m. You just replace the entire unit once every 10 years."

He also asks you to help the elderly and friends when it comes to changing batteries and replacing smoke detectors.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal reports

(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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