HOME FIRE SAFETY TIPS  

It has been a long time since I last submitted an article.  This one will address home fire safety tips.  They are numerous, yet simple.  They are so simple, in fact, that they are often overlooked.

First, allow me to review a little.  Remember the fire triangle?  It consists of three simple things: heat, oxygen, and fuel.  Remove any one of the three and fire cannot exist.  Enough review, let’s move on.

The first place I would like to address is the kitchen.   Kitchen fire safety is one of the most important issues facing today’s senior citizen.  Kitchen fires are the cause in 23.5% of residential dwelling fires.  There are more electrical appliances in the kitchen than in any other room in the home.   There are more sources of heat in the kitchen than in any other room in the home.  Senior citizens need to be extra careful in the kitchen concerning fire safety. 

Kitchens are usually located such that the activity in the home is very near them.  They are watched and attended quite well.  But the kitchen is the biggest culprit in fires.  Things that go wrong in the kitchen go wrong faster.  We have many rooms in our homes that offer silent escape from everyday life.  The kitchen is hardly one of those places, with the noise, excitement, and other distractions.  Add these things together with the pressure of having to have gourmet meals ready for a small army right on time, and it makes for quite a dangerous place.  One suggestion for safety in the kitchen is to unplug any appliances when not in use.  This will eliminate the heat part of the fire triangle.  Only use appliances on counters with plenty of space and keep papers, wrappers, and packaging away from the heat of the appliance.  A clean kitchen is a safer kitchen.  Clean up all the trash and crumbs that may end up as fuel.  And appliances work most efficiently when clean.  Try to limit the number of “helpers” in the kitchen.  The more hands involved, the higher possibility for mistakes.  ‘Tis the season for baking.  Start earlier and you don’t have to work as fast to get 40 dozen sugar cookies ready at just the right moment.  Did you know that Pop-Tarts toaster pastries and old toasters have been responsible for fires?  This sweet edible is almost pure sugar and sugar will ignite at a certain amount of heat.  The last issue I will mention concerning the kitchen applies all over your home.  I will mention it several times.  CANDLES!  Never leave them unattended.  If you step to the restroom, the phone, or the doorbell, blow the candle out. 

The next most important room is the mechanical room.  It is second to the kitchen in heat generating devices.  The furnace, water heater, boiler, washing machine and dryer, humidifier, de-humidifier, and a host of other appliances may be present in the mechanical room.  A proper inspection by a licensed contractor will keep large appliances in good working order.  It is the best way to spend some “insurance” money.  This is a good place to remember the fuel part of the fire triangle.  There is so much heat present, and this room seems the best fit for storage, (of fuels) that the two parts of the triangle are just waiting to connect.  Try to store flammable and combustible materials somewhere other than this room.  Mattresses and clothes seem to be the most often involved fuels in fires that start in the mechanical room.  They should be kept clear of the appliances, preferably in another room, at all times.  My mother keeps her home at an even 65 degrees.  When the kids visit, they complain it’s too cold, and she turns the heat up to about 70 degrees.  This means the furnace runs more and the source of heat is present more often.  This means the possibility for fires is greater. 

Candle fires are rather common.  They are more common this time of year because of the holidays.  It is a very simple to avoid this risk.  Refuse to use candles and they can’t burn down your home.  But if you must use them, use them smartly.  Never, ever leave them alone for even a moment.  Never burn them past the last one-half or one-quarter of an inch.   Always use a dish or saucer under candles as an insulator between the surface they sit on and the heat.  Keep the wicks trimmed so the flame isn’t any higher than about one-half an inch.  This will also promote a cleaner burning candle and less soot.  I once heard an unconfirmed story involving a cat and a candle.  It seems the cat was quite curious and inspected a burning candle.  His whiskers disappeared quickly.  This startled the cat quite a bit and he turned and ran in the other direction.  What do you suppose is at the end of a cat that is highly flammable?  The author giggled when he told me this part which I found disturbing.  He said the tail looked just like a fuse as the fire worked its way down it.  What the cat did next cost this guy several thousand dollars, 3 months in a motel room, and some very serious inconvenience.  He did what most animals will do when they are scared, he ran behind the chair and under the curtains.  As the fur on the cat continued to burn, the curtains ignited. I was told the cat survived with less injury than one might think.  That is only because he tackled the cat as it ran out from behind the chair and basically “stopped, dropped, and rolled” it.  But, by the time the cat was out, the living room was more involved than he could handle, and he left and called the fire department. 

The garage is another place where accidental fires occur.  Unlike the kitchen, which is loaded with combustible materials, the garage is loaded with flammable liquids.  All the oil, cleaners, aerosol spray cans, gas cans, and propane gas cylinders are dangerous when stored in the garage.  The best advice about your garage is this: if you have a heater installed, remove all the flammable liquids.  You will probably be fine if you don’t have a heater installed, just keep your grinding and welding activities to a minimum.  Remember to keep all appliances that have a burner at least 18” above the floor.  This will help eliminate fumes that are heavier than air from getting to the pilot light on the appliance and igniting.  Always, always keep your garage ventilated when using any fuel–burning appliance.  Propane heaters, furnaces, torches, and the like will use all the oxygen in the atmosphere, which is what you need to live.  Keep all materials away from the heat-generating appliances.  Keep gas can lid and vents closed all the time.  They may build a little pressure, but nothing to be worried about.  Just remember to point them away from your face when opening.  Try to store your gas cans in a shed or outside if possible.  Gas will give off a vapor (what actually ignites and permeates the air) at – 45 degrees.  So the cold will not render the gas useless.  Would you cook an $18.00 steak in the garage with all that stuff around?  Some have deep fried a turkey in the garage.  Little did they know that the fryer was over filled and boiled the oil, up to 5 gallons of it.  This caused the garage to burn.  Another fire

was caused by a grill that was rolled into the garage.  It hadn’t cooled and the propane leak in the system sounded like frying oil from the cooker.  It turns out that the pilot from the furnace ignited the fumes from the leak.  There was serious injury from this.    

All the other rooms in the home have fire risk associated with them.  Too many extension cords are one issue.  Unclean rooms are a concern.  Portable electric space heaters are a concern.   Lamp fixtures get pretty hot and can cause a fire.  And basically, what humans do in each room, is a concern.  Candles are one of the leading causes of fire.  I use them, I should say, my family uses them, but I really think we should outlaw them.  I can’t avoid that so I went a couple of steps ahead of those candles.  I installed 14 interconnected, electric, with battery back-up, heat and smoke detectors in all of the seven rooms in my home.  Overkill?  Not when it comes to the safety and well-being of my beloved.  And I bought fire extinguishers for all the rooms and trained the whole family on how to use them.  They don’t go with the decoration scheme but they do with the “I want to live” scheme.  The most important thing my family did was create and practice a fire escape drill.  This will ensure our exit from the building at any time in case of fire.  

            I am grateful that you let me drone on.  I hope this has been of some help, even if it sparks a question that I haven’t answered.  I will be happy to talk about any questions you have. 

  Jim Carroll
Fire Prevention Education Officer
Grand Traverse Fire Dept.