Recent Trends In Fire Calls And How You Can Prevent It From Happening To You And Your Loved Ones

Over the last several weeks, I have noticed a couple of common themes to our response for reported fires in the home. Both causes are for the most part (as is the case many times with fire) very preventable incidents.

The first is something I have warned all of you about in the recent past – Clothes Dryer Fires. Many times these fires start as a result of folks not cleaning in and around their clothes dryers. While many know to clean the lint trap out, many more do not know that there are more parts you should be cleaning to prevent a fire from happening to you.

Looking around on the internet, I found one site that lays out a pretty good explanation of how to clean your clothes dryer. Please take a moment and click here to learn How to Clean the Dryer.


Fireplace damper from eHow.com

 The other issue usually does not involve a direct fire threat, though fire is involved, but can sure lead you to believe your home may be on fire. It has been quite remarkable how many folks, when starting a fire in their fire place, forget to open the damper inside the fire place so that smoke may rise up through the chimney and out into the cold night’s air! They start the fire and the next thing they know their home is rapidly filling up with thick smoke – thus making one believe there is a fire in the home.

Many times this situation involves first time fire place owners who are unaware there is basically a door up inside your fire place that you need to open before lighting the fire! Sometimes, it is just a case of someone having forgotten to do it. Regardless, I also found a good site explaining how to do this and where to find your damper. There are several different types of dampers and the site provides a few examples.

Please go here to learn more: How to Open an Indoor Fireplace Flue Damper

Hope all of you have a safe and happy weekend!

-Bill