As with every year, the FDNY has sent out a friendly public service announcement, reminding folks that this weekend is Daylight Savings Time—specifically it starts at Sunday, March 11, 2012, 2:00am (you LOSE an hour, so you move your clocks ahead an hour, e.g. 1 a.m. is 2.a.m.)— and that everyone should change their smoke detector batteries. They will be setting up 20 different locations across the five boroughs to get free smoke detector batteries, listed here. more ›

This Sunday, we spring forward at 2 a.m., so make you set your clock an hour ahead. And, as the Fire Department always reminds us during daylight savings time, it's a great time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. (While many homes have smoke detectors, 33% have dead batteries—a situation that could be dangerous.) Duracell has donated 9-volt batteries to the FDNY Foundation, and the FDNY and Duracell will be giving them out in all five boroughs today through Sunday. Here are the locations: more ›

Early this morning, around 4 a.m., a three-alarm fire broke out in a home in the Port Richmond section of Staten Island. Firefighters were on the scene at 4:13 a.m. and got it under control by 5:48 a.m., but the fire moved too fast and killed a mother and her four children, ages 2, 7, 10 and 14. According to 1010WINS, "Fire officials say it originated on the second floor and quickly spread to the attic and through the roof." more ›

Today, the Fire Department is distributing free Duracell 9V batteries at ten locations across the city to remind New Yorkers to change the batteries in their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as they change their clocks this weekend (yes, it's Daylight Saving Time at 2 a.m. on Sunday!). Locations of the free battery giveaway are after the jump. more ›

Yesterday, funeral services were held for five people killed in a Chelsea apartment fire. Delkis Balbuena and her three daughters, ages 15 months, 3 years, and 8 years, and her 10-year-old, were mourned by family and friends--who gasped at the sight of the five coffins-- at Saint Elizabeth's Church in Washington Heights. The children's father, Maschay Valdez, was separated from Balbeuna but had been visiting during the fire and was buried over the weekend; his sister told NY1, "My father wanted to pay for the funeral for all of them, but the family from the mother side didn't want them to do it all together." The FDNY found that the apartment's smoke detector had been disabled--please check your smoke detectors monthly. more ›

more ›

Fire officials say a smoke detector had been unplugged and its battery removed in the Brooklyn apartment where a fire left a 33-year-old man and his 12-year-old nephew dead early yesterday morning. It was second fatal fire from the weekend, after a fire in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood claimed the lives of five family members. more ›

Fire officials say that the smoke detector in a 6th floor Chelsea apartment that claimed five lives yesterday morning had been unplugged. The Daily News reports that the "smoke detector did not go off. The battery had been removed and the wires disconnected." more ›