The cold weather is making another appearance next week, and many people are bringing out those space heaters.
Before you plug them in, there are certain things to look out for.
“You need to check for the chords, make sure they don't have any cracks,” Lee’s Summit firefighter Captain Mike Weissenbach said. “And just check the unit itself, and make sure there's no damage."
Weissenbach said when space heaters catch fire, it can happen really fast.
“If left unattended, who knows how long it’s going to be left to burn and how much damage is going to be sustained,” he said.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, the latest statistics show that roughly 80 percent of home heating fire deaths involve space heaters.
“It is very serious,” Weissenbach said. “By the winter time, obviously with the cooler temperatures, people use them more, they set them out and sometimes unfortunately they do get left unattended.”
What types of heaters should you look for?
Bill Westerheide with Westlake Ace Hardware said generally the electric space heaters are the most common and also the safest to use in the home.
He said be sure to choose a unit that is listed or labeled by a nationally recognized laboratory, one that meets minimum safety requirements.
For kerosene heaters, there are other things to keep in mind.
“You want to make sure if you're using a fuel source space heater that you crack a window,” he said. “Two reasons for this: One, you want to make sure you don't have an overload of carbon monoxide because the fuel will produce that. And also you don't want to deplete all the oxygen in the room; by having a window cracked, you're going to have more oxygen in the room.”
Also, when adding a heat source to the room, Westerheide said it’s a good idea to make sure you have working smoke detectors and working carbon monoxide alarms, especially when using a fuel sourced space heater.
Weissenbach said make sure your space heaters are placed in a low traffic area, so they aren’t kicked, tipped over and out of children’s reach.
Make sure they are at least three feet away from anything that can burn.
Also, be sure to plug them directly to an outlet, not an extension chord.
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Rae Daniel can be reached at Rae.Daniel@KSHB.com.
