Keep Your Cool

Give Your Home a Safety Checkup To Stay a Step Ahead of Electrical Fires

By David Herder

As the summer heat persists, it’s the perfect time to prioritize safety, especially electrical safety, in your home.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, electrical failures and malfunctions contributed to 30,000 fires, 430 deaths, 1,070 injuries, and $1.3 billion in property damage every year between 2015 and 2019.

Give your home an electrical safety checkup to keep it how you like it—safe and free of electrical fire hazards.

Cords

Cords and plugs are responsible for about 7% of deaths in home fires, despite only being involved in 1% of home fires, according to the NFPA. Extension cords are the most common cause of plug- or cord-related fires. Take these precautions with your cords:

• Check all cords for damage or fraying. These issues are fire and shock hazards.
• Don’t put weight on cords. Placing chairs or other heavy objects on cords can damage them.
• Only use extension cords temporarily. If you need electrical access in a different spot, consider contacting a licensed electrician to install new outlets.
• Plug large appliances directly into outlets, never into extension cords.
• Wires inside of walls can be dangerous as well. Check for loose wall receptacles, wires or lighting fixtures, and listen for popping or sizzling sounds behind walls.

Outlets

Many electrical hazards are caused by faults— abnormal electric currents. Left untreated, these can cause shock and fire hazards. Using arc-fault and ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets can save lives.

Ground faults are where electricity has an abnormal path, creating a shock hazard. Make sure you have GFCI outlets anywhere that could become wet— including the bathroom, kitchen, and outdoor outlets.

Arcing faults often cause overheating in wires and electric equipment. Common culprits are pinched, damaged or overloaded wires. AFCIs shut off when they detect unwanted arcing. AFCIs are useful in all living areas.

Heating Equipment

Looking ahead to winter, electrical fire deaths peak in December and January, according to the United States Fire Administration. It is also the time of year when we use space heaters, wood stoves, and other heating devices.

Heating devices can become dangerous when used improperly.

Keep these tips in mind when using heating devices:

• Keep anything that can burn at least 3 feet away from heating equipment, such as furnaces, space heaters, fireplaces or wood stoves.
• Only use products as intended. Space heaters are not for drying clothes, and the cooking stove is not a heater.
• Ensure all fuel-burning heating equipment is vented to the outdoors, and keep all intake and output vents clean and clear of debris.
• Always use a fireplace screen to prevent sparks from flying into the room.
• Never plug a space heater into an extension cord.
• Keep space heaters on level ground, away from areas where you may trip over it.

Generators

Many people use portable generators during outages. To properly use one:

• Let the generator run for a couple of minutes before plugging things in to prevent catastrophic surges. Similarly, plug things in one at a time, as each device requires a small surge to start up.
• Only plug generators into your home’s transfer switch or into a heavy-duty extension cord rated for the weather conditions. Never plug generators into wall outlets—this can endanger lineworkers by backfeeding electricity onto distribution lines.
• Keep generators at least 20 feet from your home to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.