MISSOULA — Local fire officials are offering up advice about how to stay say while heating your home as we brace for cold weather later this week.
The Missoula Rural Fire District (MRFD) advises that safety should be the top priority as heating is the second leading cause of home fires.
MRFD offers the following suggestions to keep your home safe and warm:
- Have your fireplace and wood stoves inspected before you begin using them each year. Have the chimney cleaned to remove creosote, which can ignite and start a chimney fire. (Contact MRFD at 406-549-6172 to reserve a free chimney brush).
- Keep anything that can burn 3 feet away from space heaters, fireplaces, wood stoves, and radiators. Remember that skin burns too. Make sure that people, especially children, and pets stay 3 feet away.
- When you’re finished with your fire, put it out before you leave home or fall asleep. When you clean up, place the ashes inside a metal can with a lid. Store the can outside, away from the home, until the ashes are completely cold.
- Use a tempered glass or metal screen over fireplace openings to keep sparks inside. Burn only clean dry wood in fireplaces and wood or wood pellets in wood stoves.
- Never use gasoline to start a fire. There is no safe way to start a fire with gasoline.
- Only use portable space heaters that have been listed by a testing laboratory such as UL (look for the laboratory’s label). These heaters should have an automatic shut-off switch. If they are tipped over, they will automatically turn off. Plug portable electric heaters directly into the wall outlet; don’t use an extension cord or power strip.
- Turn space heaters off when you leave the room or before falling asleep. Never leave space heaters unattended while in use.
Heating is the second leading cause of fire deaths for people ages 65 and over. If you care for an older adult, plan for this increased risk.
- Check space heaters throughout the season.
- Make sure that bedding, throws, and clothing are kept at least 3 feet away.
- Verify that fixed heating equipment is inspected every season and professionally cleaned when necessary.
- Talk with older adults to make sure that they understand their risk of burns and fire.
- Plan for emergencies. Older adults may move more slowly or have trouble hearing a smoke alarm because of hearing loss. Make a home fire escape plan around their abilities.
- Keep the telephone, hearing aids, and eyeglasses next to the bed.
- If someone in your care uses a cane or wheelchair, decide who will help them get out in an emergency.
MRFD Deputy Fire Marshal Pete Giardino says following these tips is especially important during the first cold snap of the season.
“Typically during the first cold snap when the fireplaces and wood-burning stoves get used for the first time. We get a lot of chimney fires or reports of smoke in the house because the flue is closed or because the chimney is not clean. And so, we get we see a lot of that usually the first cold snap of the season," Giardino says. "So we feel it's important that the people who have those devices in their homes get them checked, either by checking them themselves or have somebody come in to service those devices so that they know that they're being fire safe.”
Visit mrfdfire.org or contact the Missoula Rural Fire District at 406-549-6172 for additional information and safety advice.
- Claire Peterson contributed to this report
