With extreme cold comes house fires

[MishMouse]

Due to extreme cold temps, people who do not burn often are lighting up the stoves and fireplaces.
Almost everyday since temp dipped below zero you hear about a chimney fire or a house fire.
(broken link removed to http://www.dl-online.com/content/update-fire-destroys-mobile-home)

Before you burn, make sure you have seasoned wood, and that your chimney and your stove have been properly inspected by a certified professional before you light it up. Also make sure all combustibles are away from the stove. Even if you light it off once or 2x a year, these procedures have to be followed.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Great point MM. Around here most house fires occur from careless use of plug in electric heaters,kerosene heaters ect. I have found the typical 1500w electric heater can cause an overload condition on some outlets even on new wiring,and start heating up the wire and the outlet. I have changed to all quartz infrared 400-800w heater that seem to do a better job with less load on wiring. We even changed our xmas lights to all LED as the old lights were heating up the outlets.A dangerous condition.

 

[Sprinter]

Sad story, but thanks for bringing it up. Those firefighters had a tough job there with the freezing temps, too. Been there, done that in cold eastern Wa. It's awful.

Like Randy, we have more space heater fires than wood burning fires over here. Two last week just in our district.

 

[eclecticcottage]

I hate those space heaters. We have two, that we used to use in our Old House, but only when attended (no central heat, one was for the bathroom that never seemed to get good enough air flow, the other for the laundry room).

Over Thanksgiving, a neighbor's boiler went out while they weren't home. The plumber they had called before leaving because it was making noises came over to us when he couldn't reach them because he couldn't fix it but didn't want to stay there all night/the next day (it was stuck unregulated so it wouldn't cut out when it hit a certain temp-he could cycle it on/off manually to keep it warm). We got a hold of them and offered to run their wood stove for them, but they asked us to plug in their electric heaters instead. We brought our two over and used the two they had, but we went over every few hours to make sure they hadn't tripped a breaker and the cords/outlets weren't getting too hot. Personally, I would have trusted the stove more, but they said they weren't comfortable having a fire in it with no one there (they know we heat with wood, so I don't think they were afraid we couldn't "work the stove").

 

[begreen]

Pipe freezes are an issue too. Local plumbers and city crews are overwhelmed right now.

 

[Sprinter]

Pipe freezes are an issue too. Local plumbers and city crews are overwhelmed right now.

Yes, and whatever you do, don't try to thaw a frozen pipe with a torch! That's another popular way to get an unwelcome visit from your fire department.

 

[bag of hammers]

We have a couple of the oil filled units that take the edge off in the back rooms. I run them on low (500W) + I'm almost OCD about checking them, including the power cord (sanity check both at the outlet and at the heater to make sure the cord is not warming up at all). I unplug them when we're not there. Probably paranoid, this is way overkill, but it's a habit that only takes a few seconds a couple times a day.

 

[Sprinter]

We have a couple of the oil filled units that take the edge off in the back rooms. I run them on low (500W) + I'm almost OCD about checking them, including the power cord (sanity check both at the outlet and at the heater to make sure the cord is not warming up at all). I unplug them when we're not there. Probably paranoid, this is way overkill, but it's a habit that only takes a few seconds a couple times a day.

All of that is good policy. Good idea to use them on low or medium settings and don't use more than one on a circuit. I like those oil filled radiator types, they don't get too hot. I don't like the parabolic 1500 watt radiant heaters for safety. Too easy to get something too close and they're very hot.

Never use an extension cord on a heater. Especially a 1500 watt one. Often we see extension cords covered up with rugs. Also bad. The connections are especially vulnerable to overheating. Go around and feel the plugs on any heater. If it feels too warm to the touch, replace the plug. Some of them are poorly made.