Ever had your life impacted negatively by a fire?
Our home/residence is probably the prime place we go to feel safe on this planet, but fire respects no hopes of guaranteed safety. When known risk factors are allowed, often due to ignorance or careless behaviour, fire can do a startling amount of damage to lives and property in a very short amount of time.
It’s not a situation we want to put ourselves or loved ones in.
Earlier this week I followed up on an article in which Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) fire investigations co-ordinator Jason Fedoriw had listed the top five causes of house fires.
The list (in no particular order): careless disposal of smoking materials (no surprise there), stove/cooking fires, electrical fires, improperly maintained dryers and arson.
Smoking materials are always such a threat. Along with careless disposal, people who smoke in bed or in similar sleep-related situations seem to be putting themselves at huge risk of dozing off and triggering a fire.
If you’re one of the people who engages in this risky behaviour, I say (with love) STOP THAT!
With regard to the dryer, I have always harboured a concern about appliances being left running/operating while the residents are out. Wondering if those concerns are valid, I put in a call to Mark Reshaur, WFPS assistant chief of fire prevention and public education.
"Yes," Reshaur said, "fires starting from appliances left operating while people are out is a definite possibility. Whether at home or away, the stove is the worst one to leave unattended and a running dryer poses the most serious risk of the other appliances in an empty home."
Lint left to build up in the trap and in fact all the way to the exhaust vent is a definite fire hazard. Dryers need regular maintenance to keep them as lint-free as possible.
Makes sense. This valuable info inspired me to check my own exhaust vent this weekend, no pun intended.
I tell Reshaur I’m even leery of leaving the washing machine or dishwasher on while out, fearing some rare malfunction that may lead to a fire.
"A couple of the possibilities there," Reshaur said, "is that those machines may have a motor failure that could lead to a fire, or a bearing heat up, an added risk regarding the dishwasher being some dysfunction, albeit seldom, with the drying cycle. It’s just not a good idea to leave these types of appliances operating while away."
Suspicions confirmed. Certainly something to think about.
Regarding the "careless disposal of smoking materials" risk, I have a very strong personal memory for endorsing that one.
Waaaaay back in the early 1950s, a mechanic working in the service area of my dad’s hardware store, car and farm machinery dealership, tossed his still lit cigarette butt to the floor only to have it ignite a big pan of gasoline they used to wash parts in, and burned the service area down. Everyone smoked everywhere back then.
Fortunately they managed to save the hardware store portion, but it was one heck of a fire.
I’ll wrap today’s fire heads-up on a note to those of us who occasionally use gasoline to start a wood fire (and even to light charcoal briquettes). One sunny afternoon a former neighbour here in Headingley poured considerable gasoline on a good pile of branches that she wanted to burn.
Then, bent over the pile, she tried a few matches that failed to light, giving (unbeknownst to her) the gas fumes time to spread. When a match finally lit, the resulting explosion blew her up in the air and over onto her back. Thud. She healed, but big ouch.
Guess we better stop that behaviour too. Be safe.
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