[Hugh R]

I'll tell you why you need to keep your smoke detector batteries fresh.

12 year old daughter strings candles above her bed with string, in the morning, I find candles burned out and 2 of the 3 strings burned out and the burned out candles hanging above her bed.

14 year old daughter, same girl, puts taco shells in toaster oven and they catch on fire while I'm at the market. 12 year old (boy scout) son grabs fire extinguisher and puts out fully engulfed toaster oven fire.

16 year old daughter, same girl, turns on gas fireplace at midnight while I'm sleeping, and goes to get a match/clicker, and gets distracted. At 3AM, 14 year old (boy scout) son, same son, wakes up to take a piss and smells gas doesn't turn on lights, finds fireplace roaring natural gas with no flame, turns off gas, opens doors and windows and doesn't turn on lights and wakes me up.

Me and wifey go to Grand Bahamas and leave 18 year old daughter, same one, and 16 year old son at home, come home and find a fire melted one gallon gasoline can floating in the spa. Turns out the 16 year old son (I hope) to be Eagle Scout doused a burning fire in the fire pit with gas and it came back to the can.

I know very little of this has to do with smoke detector batteries, but you need all the ammunition that you can get.