Family's story makes case for smoke alarms

It's the same old reminder every year: Change your smoke detector batteries when you set your clocks forward or backward for daylight-saving time.

Maybe it's tiresome to hear these messages, much less heed them. If so, they should look to the Keller family's story for inspiration.

It was 3 a.m. when the smoke alarm at the Keller home began emitting piercing shrieks. The Randles, Mo., family ran out of the blazing home and to a relative's house next door. Even though fire departments hastily arrived on the scene, what the fire didn't ruin of the Kellers' belongings, the smoke did.

Young Gavin Keller, 10, was wearing borrowed sweat pants when he posed for a photograph holding the still-functional smoke alarm and grinning from ear to ear.

Yes, he'd lost clothes and toys. But he had his dad, mom and two little sisters.

And his parents were grateful they'd heeded the advice to check that smoke alarm battery regularly. All of us should do the same the last weekend of October when we set our clocks back. Or, if we missed the check last spring, we should do it today.