SPOKANE, Wash. – With the lowest temperatures of the year rolling in across the Inland Northwest over the last couple weeks, the Spokane Fire Department (SFD) says they’ve seen an uptick in house fires caused by space heaters and overloaded power strips.
“Just since this last cold snap we’ve seen two fires come up,” said SFD fire investigator Lt. John Goodman.
Not using space heaters properly can have some serious consequences, like a house fire in North Spokane on November 11 caused by a space heater that was plugged into a power strip, which caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage.
“People plug eight or nine things into it, then they take their space heater and plug it in there as well,” Goodman said. “That [power strip] is not designed to carry the kind of load that [space heaters] put on it.”
So much power all at once can overload the circuits in a power strip or extension cord, “then the conductors fail, they spark, drop a spark on something combustible close by and then off to the races we go,” Goodman said.
Firefighters say the biggest issue about this problem is that it’s entirely preventable, so before you go and plug in your space heater there are a couple things you need to check, based off of this list from the National Fire Protection Association.
First, make sure you’re getting a heater with a seal of approval from a certified testing laboratory, because SFD Community Risk Reduction Manager Jamie McIntyre says they’re more likely to have better safety features.
“Underwriter’s Laboratory–UL–and ETL are two of the common certifying entities that you’ll see on appliances in your home,” McIntyre said.
Next, always plug a heater directly into a wall outlet, and never plug it into an extension cord or a power strip.
“If we don’t plug our heaters into power strips, that’s one thing we can knock off the table,” Goodman said.
Third, give your heater some room.
“Space heaters need space,” McIntyre said. “You want to have three feet around that space heater free from anything that can catch on fire.”
Finally, make sure you turn your heater off and unplug it before you leave the room or go to bed.
“If [heaters] don’t get a rest, then they continue to heat and then we have a failure, and we have a spark that starts a fire,” Goodman said.
McIntyre says taking those few extra minutes to run through those important steps could be all it takes for you to prevent a fire at your home this winter.
“We enjoy spending time with our community, but we really don’t want to do it in an emergency situation,” she said.
For more information about space heater safety, visit the National Fire Protection Association‘s website by clicking here.
