Every fireman across the world knows it: with snow, comes fire.
With a Winter Storm warning for most of the listening area in effect, Burlington Fire Chief Matt Trexel is warning those who may be thinking about plugging in that space heater to reconsider.
“If you can avoid using a space heater at all costs, use your furnace. We don’t have fires from furnaces, it doesn’t [usually] happen. It’s normally the auxiliary heating method, either a space heater or some kind of wood burning fireplace or stove that they’re using for auxiliary heat,” Trexel told KBUR.
If you do plug in a space heater, make sure you aren’t plugging it into an extension cord.
“People will plug them into an extension cord…they’ll put stuff on top of the cord.” Trexel said, “Don’t put…a rug, or a box over those cords. [They] will heat up.”
Trexel says to make sure that your heater is new, and equipped with fail-safe tip over protection that will shut the heater off if tips over.
Be sure to give them space.
“They need clearance around the space heater, so keep them away from…window drapes, bed linen, anything like that,” Trexel said, “They need to have a radius around them where nothing can get too close and catch fire.”
In addition to safe space heater usage, or, preferably, non-usage, Trexel says another way to prevent catastrophe during the cold weather is to make sure smoke alarms–with fresh batteries installed, are present in the home.
Improper space heater usage is the number one cause of fires during cold weather.
