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Stay Toasty and Avoid a Disaster | SERVPRO of East Lansing/Haslett
1/16/2024 (Permalink)
Fire safety is a top priority for us at SERVPRO of East Lansing/Haslett this winter. Keep your home safe with these helpful tips!
The cozy season is here, which means you can finally pile on the blankets and wear all the fuzzy socks. While a crackling fire in the fireplace goes great with a good sweatshirt, keeping your home warm and toasty can come with the risk of a fire.
During the winter, house fires can become common. Most often, they are caused by something that was preventable. Space heater, fireplaces and other electronic heating devices can cause fire issues, but when you use them correctly you can keep your home safe.
There is nothing quite as soothing as curling up next to a fire. When a winter storm blows through, having a fireplace can keep your home warm even if the power is knocked out.
Even with their benefits, fireplaces can be very dangerous. If you use wood for your fires, ash and other debris should be cleaned out after every fire. Your chimney should be professionally cleaned and inspected every year as well.
Make sure there isn’t anything flammable near your fireplace, including hanging off of the mantle. You should have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors either in the room with your fireplace or right outside of it.
For gas or electric fireplaces, make sure all the connections are tight and not showing signs of aging. Keep things clean—dust is highly flammable.
Space heaters can be a great way to add a little extra warmth to a room when the temperatures are particularly low outside, but they are also responsible for nearly 1,700 house fires every year. Keep in mind a few safety tips when you decide to use a space heater in any room of your house.
Make sure they are on a level surface and have a three-foot radius of open space around them. Take a look at the cord and make sure there aren’t any signs of wear and tear. Always plug your space heater directly into the wall as well.
Teach the kids to stay away from your heaters, and take steps to protect your pets, too. Feeling the heat from the heater can be comforting, but avoid putting it too close to your couch, curtains or anything else that could start to burn. Always turn your heater off when you leave the room or head to bed for the evening.
There is a wide variety of space heaters on the market. You can find just about any size in any price range, but you want to make sure the ones you use in your home come with certain safety features in order to add another layer of protection against fires.
Check into the manufacturer to ensure that they are reliable and certified. Heaters should go through pretty strict testing before they reach the consumer to ensure they are as safe as possible. Any space heater you choose to use should have automatic shutoff features. They should turn off immediately when tipped, but they should also cut off after an extended period of use.
Space heaters should have a sturdy, well-made cord that is at least six feet long. You should never plug an extension cord into a space heater, so make sure you are getting one with a long enough cord to meet your needs.
By taking care of your fireplace and ensuring your space heaters have plenty of safety features means you can keep your home as warm as you like. If something does happen, our SERVPRO of East Lansing/Haslett team is ready to handle soot, smoke or any other fire damage around the clock.
A quick fire damage restoration is just a phone call away. Call SERVPRO® for immediate assistance.