The theme for this year’s National Fire Prevention Week is "Test Your Smoke Alarms."According to information from the National Fire Protection Association, that simple message could reduce the amount of property loss, injury and death in communities.Although smoke alarms are in 90 percent of Minnesota homes, many don’t work due to lack of maintenance or dead batteries. The average homeowner may not be aware that smoke alarms have a ten-year life expectancy and that most alarms will lose up to 50 percent of their effectiveness after that period. Hills Fire Chief Doug Chapman encourages residents to replace smoke detectors after 10 years and change batteries twice a year, even if the batteries are still good. While fire extinguishers protect property, smoke detectors save lives. "In the middle of the night a fire extinguisher doesn’t do you any good, but a smoke alarm may," Chapman said.Batteries taken out of smoke detectors can be used somewhere else not as critical to saving lives, according to Chapman. "When you set your clocks ahead and back is a good time to change batteries," he said. Chapman uses the example of the last house fire in Hills. He said that working smoke alarms likely saved the resident’s life. Since the majority of the fires the Hills Department responds to are grass or trash fires, Chapman wants to remind everyone to use caution while burning during the dry fall months. "If you’re going to burn stuff, you need to watch it and be conscious of wind conditions," he said.Disturbing statisticsAccording to the Fire Protection Association, 65 to 75 percent of fire deaths result from fires in homes without working smoke alarms.Death by activity:Escaping 36%Sleeping 33%Unable to act 22%Rescue 3%Irrational acts 3%Fire Control 2%Fires by areas of origin:Kitchen 33%Bedroom 20%Living room 18%Laundry 10%Heating area 8%Garage 8%Pancake Feed …The Hills Fire Department is serving pancakes and sausage from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14, at the Hills Legion Hall. There will be a free-will offering."Those in our coverage area and everybody else is welcome," Chapman said.The pancakes the firemen make are "the best," according to Chapman. They will be served with smoky sausage from the Hills Locker.The fire department is also selling raffle tickets for various prizes with the proceeds going toward purchasing either an infrared camera to locate people in burning structures or a jaws-of-life, according to Chapman.