Fire Chief: Monitor Indoor Heating Closely

Keep an extra careful eye on your indoor heating systems to prevent house fires as winter weather begins to set in.

Putnam County Fire Chief Jeff Hicks said one in seven home fires are linked to heating equipment. Hicks said the majority of these fires in the local area are caused by wood stoves.

“Low maintenance, like not taking care of your flue, getting it cleaned out or checked at least once a year, that’s been one of the major things,” Hicks said. “We have more chimney fires in the wintertime than we have probably any other source of heating issue.”

Hicks said another fire hazard comes when people stop using wall heaters after they install another form of heating and cooling. Hicks said people think the heater is turned off as long as the thermostat is set high enough, but those heaters can turn back on if the house gets too cold.

“A lot of times once they do away with them they’ll set a couch or something in front of it,” Hicks said. “We’ve had two or three that caught the back of a couch on fire and burned the house.”

Hicks said preventative maintenance is important for any kind of indoor heating. Hicks said smoke alarms should also be regularly checked because early detection is vital for saving both lives and property.

“We had one fire in particular last year that we saved the house but it had a lot of fire damage underneath it,” Hicks said. “Where some of the dust got on the heating coil from the fan so it was a larger quantity so it fell down in and set the duct work on fire which popped the fire up in two or three different rooms before we got it stopped. We’ve had several calls like that.”

Hicks said electric space heaters should be used on hard surfaces like ceramic tile to prevent them from getting knocked over. Hicks said a space heater can set things like bedding or papers on fire if the heater is placed too close to them.

“All the modern equipment, if they get tipped over they’ll shut off,” Hicks said. “But if it’s hot enough and it falls directly, it could still possibly set something on fire if it fell against it.”