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Home Fires are Preventable

Prevention is the Best Way to Avoid Home Fires

There’s nothing sadder than a tragedy that could have been easily prevented. Ask anyone who, helplessly, has watched while their house burned. When it comes to your home, so many fires are preventable and making sure two areas of your home are clean cuts drastically your risk of damage.

Home Fires are Preventable Image - Jackson MS - Santa's Friend Chimney Service

Hidden In Plain Sight

Of course, some causes of fires are obvious: overloading outlets, leaving an unattended candle burning, placing an object too close to a heat source. The US Fire Administration tracks such statistics. So you may be surprised by some other causes of home fires. A startling 84 percent of home heating fires occur in the chimney, flue, or fuel burner. Thirty-four percent of household dryer fires results from dryers that have never been cleaned. The really frightening side to this is that these fire hazards are hidden in plain sight. The hazards mount each time you light your fireplace and use your dryer, but you don’t see it happening.

Clean Clothes and Dirty Dryers

A more likely, but less apparent cause of fire is blockage and dirt in your dryer vent, the piping that leads from your dryer to the outside. Even if your venting is short and simple, and you can see where it begins and where it ends.  You still will need to have it cleaned out regularly. Lint is an excellent conduit to starting fires so you don’t want it accumulating in the venting. But your venting system may not be that straightforward and you may not be able to see to turns and bends that can keep the lint from moving forward. You may also not be able to see what else is your venting is harboring, such as animals. So if you think you need to call the dryer repairman because your clothes take longer to dry or your dryer keeps shutting off, it may not be the dryer; it’s probably debris in the piping.

Debris and animals are often well known causes of problems occurring in your chimney. Let unattended to build up, creosote, nesting materials, and animals themselves can causes fires to back up when you light your fireplace. Weak masonry from age or poor construction may also add to the risk of home fires.

Why Wait?

Regular annual maintenance takes care of the problems and eliminates the risk of these types of tragedies occurring in your home. Santa’s Friend technicians are CSIA trained and certified to spot and address the hazards you cannot see. An annual chimney inspection will find any leaks and weak areas in your chimney and annual sweeping takes away all the debris.
You don’t need to worry about unexpected work cleaning up after us. Whether we are cleaning your dryer vent or your chimney, we prepare the area so no debris ends up on your floors or walls. We use the latest equipment to make sure the job is done efficiently.
So, if there were something you could do to prevent home fires, wouldn’t you do it? You can, and Santa’s Friend Chimney Service is here to help! Contact us today to schedule an appointment and help get your home safe.

By Jim Robinson on September 8th, 2016 | Tagged with: Tags: , , | Leave a Comment

The Dangers of a Clogged Dryer Vent

Unfortunately, many homeowners do not realize the dangers of dirty dryer vents until it is too late. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), clothes dryers were involved with an estimated 16,800 residential fires that caused 51 deaths, 380 injuries, and $236 million in property damages in 2010. The leading cause of these fires was failure to clean clogged dryer vents. Santa’s Friend Chimney Service can help prevent your clothes dryer from being a fire hazard with our professional dryer vent cleaning services. Recommended by the NFPA, the Chimney Safety Institute of America, and other national fire safety organizations, an annual professional dryer vent cleaning also has other advantages. We would like to tell you more about the benefits of having your dryer vent professionally cleaned.

The Dangers of a Clogged Dryer Vent Image - Jackson MS - Santa's Friend

Reduce the risk of a residential fire

The statistics from the NFPA speak for themselves. Clogged dryer vents are dangerous fire hazards, and a professional dryer vent cleaning from Santa’s Friend Chimney Service can keep your home from becoming part of these statistics. The reason why clogged and dirty dryer vents are such fire hazards has to do with lint. Although your lint screen does trap a great deal of the lint produced from drying a load of clothes, lint still gets into the vent where it can accumulate to the point of blocking the vent. Lint is so flammable that it is recommended to start campfires by the Boy Scouts of America, so when the clogged vent causes the dryer to overheat, lint can easily and quickly ignite into a fire that can spread throughout your home. Our experienced technicians will be sure to remove every bit of lint to reduce this fire hazard.

Improve the efficiency of your dryer

When the dryer vent is dirty and clogged, your dryer has to work harder to operate, and this causes the appliance to overheat. If you continue to use your dryer as it overheats, it will cause important components like the heating element to wear out prematurely. Repairing the heating element can be very expensive, and it could even be more economical to replace your dryer. A professional dryer vent cleaning will actually prolong the life of your dryer. After Santa’s Friend Chimney Service has cleaned your dryer vent, you will notice a big improvement in the efficiency of your clothes dryer.

Save money and energy

If your dryer vent is clogged, the dryer will have a hard time drying a load of clothes in one cycle. If you have ever noticed damp clothes at the end of a complete drying cycle, your dryer vent is most likely clogged. Having to run your dryer twice the time to dry a load of clothes not only wastes energy, but it is also very costly. You will see a reduction in your utility bills after a professional dryer vent cleaning from Santa’s Friend Chimney Service.
You should never ignore the dangers of a clogged dryer vent. Contact us at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service to schedule an appointment for our dryer vent cleaning services.

By Jim Robinson on July 28th, 2016 | Tagged with: Tags: , , | Leave a Comment

Dryer Vent Safety

One of the leading causes of  house fires is due to neglecting the care are maintenance of dryer vents. Be sure to have regular cleaning and inspection done.

Clean your dryer vents before serious problems occur.

Clean your dryer vents before serious problems occur.