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.
A fire Tuesday in West Newbury killed an elderly man. Firefighters say there were no working smoke alarms. Two little girls also died in a fire in Orange last weekend. The home's smoke alarms didn't work.
