The past thirty days may be recorded as one of the deadliest for residential fires.

Since Thanksgiving, more than 200 people nationwide have died because their homes were without smoke alarms.

Wednesday, the Clay Fire Department reached out to the community to raise awareness about the importance of smoke detectors.

Officials say, not only is it important to have working smoke detectors installed in the home, but also make sure they are maintained properly.

They suggest changing the batteries once a year, replace detectors every 10 years, and check to make sure the detector works properly twice a month.

If a problem occurs it can be an easy fix says Fire Marshall Dave Cherrone, "If you don't have working smoke detectors, and you need them, call the fire department that responds to your area, they'll put in the amount that you need, they'll make sure obviously that they're working, your only part of that is to continue care"