Firefighters are urging everyone to use smoke detectors after the deadliest holiday season in recent memory.

The Department of Homeland Security and firefighters across the country issued the call Wednesday.
Since Thanksgiving, more than 200 people in the U.S. have died in fires.

And there have been 25 deaths since the beginning of 2009.
Locally, we've seen at least 8 house fires in the last week.
Firefighters say in all 25 cases, there were no working smoke detectors.

They recommend testing your smoke detector once a month, and replacing the batteries each year.