I woke up a couple days ago to hear the horrific news of a house fire that killed three children. Then the story was updated to four children and the mother of three of the children. 

Please check your smoke detectors. Have batteries ready to change out when needed. If it's been a good while please change the batteries now. If you do not have smoke detectors, your local fire dept. will happily give them to you.

The holidays are approaching and sadly more fires take place. Check with your elderly loved ones and with your elderly neighbor to make certain they have smoke detectors working. 

Paying forward this vital advice will save lives. 

You're a saint for caring about people you may or may not know, and reminding them to check things often forgotten or just ignored. May you have a blessed hedge of protection over you and your family. :)

Here we don't have many smoke detectors, especially in homes. I hope the phone battery and other lithium ones don't go crazy and start fires, they're actually the highest danger we have at home, more than stoves and electrical system.

Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are mandatory requirements under Building Regulations in the UK. These are applied retrospectively, but they are important and inexpensive so you should definitely invest in them. They might just save a life. 

Speaking of, our smoke detector recently decided it wanted a change of battery but it says in the back it can't be changed.. landlord has been harassed once, but never got back to me again! Better get that sorted before anything happens :(