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.
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.