Winter House Fires Can Be Prevented

Every year the amount of household fires rises drastically. So many people die, get burned, lose their pets, homes, and precious memories due to household fires. The sad part about these stories is that most of them could have been prevented with a few simple steps. It’s quite astonishing how many people forget to put prevention practices into use. What’s even more astounding is the fact that many people do not think a household fire could happen to them or they don’t think about it at all. We are going to take a look at a few common reasons for the higher incidents of household fires in the winter.

One of the many concerns you should have when winter arrives is how to heat your home. Many people have a maintenance person visit their home to make sure their furnaces and chimneys are properly cleaned and maintained to prevent any fires and to keep your system running smoothly. Most people also have their venting areas cleaned and looked at to make sure the home is getting adequate ventilation. This is possibly the very best approach to preventing many household fires.

Another issue is portable heaters. Many of the portable electric heaters require high amounts of electricity. These heaters have a tendency to overheat your household wiring if they are running for long periods of time. A good way to prevent this such hazard is to make sure the wiring in your home is capable of handling the wattage load that your heater is drawing. You also want to figure in the wattage usage of other appliances running on the same line. This is often overlooked and leads to many wiring overloads.

Kerosene and gas heaters cause yet another fire hazard as they can easily be tipped over, or catch fire. You should never leave these unattended. The fumes from these units can also be very hazardous.

One other thing I would like to mention is the overloading of plug outlets for Christmas lights. Have you ever looked at your neighbor’s Christmas tree and seen 6-7 plugs stacked into each other? This is a big problem. Christmas lights are very nice to have, and can put most people into a spiritual mood, but you must be careful not to overload the plugs. A little common sense here goes a very long way.

I have found that the best approach is to call my maintenance man out to my house in the fall, before winter begins. This gives me extra time to get any repairs done if needed before the winter weather begins. I have him check my oil furnace, clean my chimney, and do maintenance work on my furnace and check the venting. This yearly checkup is also the best time to remind yourself to check and replace all smoke detector and carbon monoxide detectors in the home while your service man is working on the furnace and chimney. If you are also going to be using a space heater, make sure the heater is large enough to heat the room you are trying to warm so that it isn’t running constantly and overheating your house wires. Make sure there is adequate ventilation for any fumes to escape. Use common sense when plugging any heating device into your outlet. Make sure the rating on the heater matches the ratings for your house wiring. Don’t overload your outlets.

These are just a few simple steps you can take to prevent house fires and save your life, and possibly your family’s and pets lives as well. It’s well worth the little bit of time it takes. Do your smoke and carbon monoxide detector maintenance when your service man comes out,
so that you will always remember to do it. Smoke detectors in every room will help to alert you of a fire much sooner than one on every floor. Every minute counts.