Educating the public on smoke alarm safety is all part of National Fire Prevention Week, running October 9-15.

Cochrane Fire Services will be out checking smoke alarms and reminding residents that detectors need to be replaced after 10 years.

Fire Prevention Officer, Jeff Avery, says they will be hitting up residents in apartment and condo complexes this year by offering new detectors and batteries.

"This is new, in the last 5 or 6 years we have been going around to different districts in town and we never really hit the big apartment complexes and we do have a few of them so we figured this year we would go door to door and offer our services."

As always, Cochrane Fire Services will answer questions from any resident regarding fire safety and have added in a bonus check for 2016.

"We are also going to do a blitz on backyard fire pits; because we are getting more and more houses in town, people are concerned on regulations so we are hoping to send some fliers their way and go door to door and answer any questions they have and let them know if their backyards can even have one."

Avery adds there are regulations and rules that many residents are not aware of.

"The biggest thing about fire pits is they need to be three metres away from any combustible on every side that could be a tree, a deck, a wooden fence, your house, 3 metres away from a property line, which is 9 feet. If you only have a 15-16 foot yard then you can't have a back yard fire pit because it is just not big enough."

Cochrane Fire Services are out daily; either responding to an incident or being proactive, educating the young and old, about fire safety.