 While 68 people died from fire related causes in Minnesota last year, the month of October is National Fire Prevention Month where fire departments aim to educate their communities on fire and home safety. During National Fire Prevention Month, the Brain and Fire Department goes into classrooms to teach kids about fire safety and prevention. By doing this, they hope to motivate kids to bring what they have learned home and share it with their family and to put forward a fire safety plan. Fire Department also holds their annual open house every October. It's a way to educate the community. It's great to get into the classrooms to talk to the younger kids about the awareness. It's great because the kids usually bring that back to their parents and then that kind of encourages the whole family to talk about the different things that we mentioned to them about, you know, their smoke alarms and an escape plan and things like that. With the winter season fast approaching, the Fire Department wants people to double check their furnaces and other appliances that have gone unused during the summer to make sure that they are in clean and in good working condition. With the daylight savings time changing here in the next couple weeks, we would encourage everyone to change their batteries and all of their smoke alarms. That way, as you, that's a good reminder with the daylight savings time to change the batteries. Also make sure that the smoke alarms in the house are current. Fire officials say that you should change batteries and smoke alarms every year and smoke alarms should be changed at least every 10 years. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.