KELOWNA — With the cold weather now upon us, chances are you’ve turned your thermostat up to keep your house warm. While furnaces and chimneys make the winter more bearable, according to National Fire Protection Association, they are also a leading cause of residential fires.
Fire safety educator Rick Euper says they haven’t responded to any chimney fires yet this year, but there has been a few furnace fires in just a couple of weeks.
“You should have your furnace checked annually by a certified inspector and make sure that things are kept away from it,” says Euper.
A furnace fire can spark in many ways, but Euper says the most common is a lack of maintenance.
Owner of Premium Comfort – a local pumbing, heating, and air conditioning company – Sean Van Steinburg says it’s best for people to have their furnace serviced before they want to start it up for the winter as a lot can happen over the summer when they are not being used.
“Usually it’s something that’s built up in there. It could be dust, it could be that some kids homework gets sucked up into one of the vents and goes through and gets stuck in the furnace, or burners aren’t properly aligned,” says Van Steinburg.
And just like furnaces, chimney’s also need to be inspected and cleaned annually.
Co-owner of MasterSweep, Rainbow Monds, says fireplaces or wood burning stoves are in essence a fire in your home and you need to make sure they’re safe.
“Other than calling a qualified person to clean, maintain and inspect their system, is to burn good fuel. Good fuel is newspaper, preferably black and white newspaper. Everything else goes in the recycling bin. Coloured paper, cardboard, plastic paper. And as far as wood, clean, dry, cordwood is the best way to go,” says Monds.
Aside from maintaining furnaces and chimneys, Euper says smoke and carbon monoxide detectors need to be checked as well.
Comments