Kitchen
- Stovetop fires caused by fat or oil burning over to hotplate or splattering nearby.
- Leaving cooking on a stove unattended
Check the proximity of electric cords, curtains, tea towels and oven cloths to ensure they are at a safe distance from the stove.
Be careful of long, flowing sleeves on dressing gowns contacting gas flames.
Bedroom and lounge room
- Oil burners and candles left on at night or left burning while occupants are away from home
- Bedside lamps with incorrect wattage globes installed. Many bedside lamps are designed for 60 watt globes only
- Smoking in bed: ensure butts are extinguished before placing in bins
- Electric blankets: never leave the house without switching them off. Never leave heavy objects on the bed when the electric blanket is on - be especially careful of pets
Laundry
- Clothes dryers: always clean lint filters after each load. Avoid drying bras in your dryer as the underwire can get caught and start a fire
- Flammable liquids: store flammable liquids such as petrol, kerosene or methylated spirits away from heaters and hot water service pilot flames
Fires caused by heating appliances
- Fireplaces without screen guards. Never leave an open fire alight when you leave the house or go to bed. Extinguish all flames and embers completely and ensure ashes are cold before discarding them.
- Clothing drying too close to heaters or open fires
- Incorrectly installed flues on wood heaters and stoves
All heating appliances must be professionally installed to Building Regulations and Australian Standards, particularly flues.
Electrical fires
- Overloaded power points and power boards
- Appliances such as an iron, stove, oven or heater left on at night or when the house is unattended
- Faulty electrical appliances. Have them repaired or discard them
- Electric cords under carpets and rugs causing heat build up
Always use a qualified electrician for all electrical wiring work. Never attempt to do it yourself.
Install safety switches and correct fuses. If a fire starts, turn off power at power point or switchboard immediately, if safe to do so.
After the Fire
By Ross Morrell
As many homeowners find out all too late, just because you have insurance, doesn’t mean you have the coverage you need. Besides having an emergency kit and evacuation plan, homeowners should check their insurance policy to make sure they have enough — and the right kind of coverage.
The first thing you’ll need to do, of course, is call your insurance company, even if it is in the middle of the night. Typically, your agent will offer to contact a company that specializes in emergency clean-up to come in and stabilize the home (mop up the water, board up the windows and put a tarp on the roof.) It is very important to know that you are NOT obligated to use the insurance company’s choice of vendor. It is your choice to select a restoration company that YOU feel comfortable with. The insurance company may try to force your hand, or “scare” you into using their preferred vendor. They are not legally allowed to do this, nor are they legally entitled to withhold monies or offer you a reduced dollar amount for choosing your own vendor. Your insurance agent will also recommend a motel, and send out a loss agent (typically the next day) to do an initial assessment.
The loss agent will take lots of pictures of the damage, sometimes seeming excessive. But don’t be surprised if they miss something. Buckled floors due to water damage may not show up for a few days, so by all means, do your own documenting as well. This person will then go back to the office and review your policy to determine what coverage you have for immediate needs, living expenses, rebuilding expenses, personal loss expenses and so forth.
Remember that insurance is never a ‘one size fits all’ sort of thing. It’s the homeowner’s responsibility to make sure coverage fits your individual needs, such as that boat or antique car parked in the garage — which are extra. A room addition that was not in the original insurance package, he noted, may not be covered either, unless you’ve added the extra square footage to your contract.
However, what homeowners are most unprepared for is the inventory (of items lost in the fire). It’s the burden of the customer to show proof of loss. (Tip: Keep your inventory on a Quicken program stored on a disc at your office, or a safe deposit box works. This can be done in advance of any emergency, complete with digital pictures or video of your homes contents, updating records as needed.)
Homeowners should know what their insurance policy pays for — replacement costs if replaced new at time of loss — versus actual cash value. That means, if you’ve had your carpet or roof for 10 years, your insurance company will typically pay only for the depreciated value, not what you spent for it. You may have to spend time searching through thrift stores or used furniture stores to find a comparable piece of furniture to help you set a replacement value or chances are you’ll get stuck with a garage sale value they use.
Clothes dryer ignites, damages Napa home
By MARSHA DORGAN
A clothes dryer fire ended up destroying a garage and melting electronic equipment Monday evening at a home on Republic Avenue.
Dryer Fires. Is Yours Ready To Ignite?
By Donald Grummett
In recent years there has been many rumours about dryers catching on fire. Should we be concerned? Yes of course. We should take seriously anything that may put our family at risk.
Was the problem the dryer? Rarely. After investigating it is usually determined to have been the venting within the home catching on fire, and not the dryer.
Obviously appliance manufacturers are concerned about the possibility of any dryer related fires. They have made it a policy to advise both service companies and consumers that the use of plastic venting is prohibited. Also they have begun stressing not to exceed maximum limits for venting length. Let me try to explain the details of this problem.
The drying process
When clothes are being dried inside your family dryer there are two processes happening. Firstly, heat is applied to the air inside the dryer drum as it turns. This raises the internal drum temperature to approximately 175 Fahrenheit. This causes moisture to be driven out of the clothing fibres by evaporation. Secondly, there is a vast volume of air being passed through the clothes. Surprisingly, the real trick to drying clothes is the air.
Ever wonder why the clothes on the clothesline dry so fast on a windy day? The hero is the wind. Well, the same process takes place inside your family dryer.
To make them dry faster air is constantly blown through the clothes during the drying cycle. The tumbling action of the drum allows further exposure of the clothing to the hot air flow. As they tumble the air picks up moisture from the clothes, carries it down the venting, and dumps it outside the home. Most people think the venting is to push the lint outside. Actually, its primary purpose is to dump the moisture outside the home.
It is a process that works efficiently. That is, as long as nothing interferes with the process. Slow down, or stop the airflow and the process quickly fails.
In the past homeowners who wanted to vent their dryers did it using rigid sections of venting. The dryer would always sit against an outside wall in the basement. The sections were secured together (using screws or duct tape), and elbows were added if necessary to connect the dryer and venting to the wall outlet. Although time consuming to install, straight venting sections were durable and would usually outlive the dryer.
Then along came flexible venting. It was basically a coil of wire covered in a plastic sheath. It made installations and servicing easier. It turned an hour installation into a ten minute job. The flex though tended to become brittle and break easily. Also it was prone to blockage and needed to be replaced every few years.
But, since flex venting was so much more convenient we continued with its use.
Then came a change in lifestyle. As both parents went off to work the household dryer was moved to accommodate our faster paced lifestyle. To save us time it was moved from the basement to a ground floor laundry room. Although moved to the working level of the home, it was still near an outside wall.
So you are saying, “I know all this, but what does it have to do with venting fires”.
I answer, “Have patience, we are almost there”.
Taking this desire for easy access still further the dryer was moved again.
The laundry room is now often located near the centre of the home, close to the family room or kitchen. If located upstairs it is often centrally located between the bedrooms, allowing faster access to where most dirty laundry is produced. Easier for the homeowner that is, but no longer near an outside wall. The distance from the dryer to the outside wall of the home is now substantially longer.
Presto, we have come to the crux of our problem. The venting is too darned long.
Physics and the venting pipe
It is a lot more difficult to push air down a long venting pipe than a short one. This is because air inside the pipe has weight and volume. Obviously, the air inside a longer pipe would weigh more than a shorter one.
After about twenty feet of venting pipe the dryer begins to have difficulty pushing against all this weight. The average dryer motor does not have enough strength to overcome the weight of the air inside the pipe. The result is that the air in the pipe begins to slow down.
Since the air slows down the moisture will accumulate in the venting rather than being carried outside. This causes the venting interior to become wet and lint traveling down the venting it will cling to the wetness.
This starts a vicious cycle as follows: The more lint inside the venting pipe, the more blockage; The more blockage, the slower the air flow; The slower the air flow, the more moisture inside the pipe; The more moisture, the more lint inside the venting.
I think you get the scenario now.
Taken to extremes the lint can block the venting closed. When this happens it can cause the dryer to overheat. The normal drum temperature of 175 Fahrenheit can quickly shoot up to 300 Fahrenheit or higher. It may even get hot enough to allow lint in the venting (or in the dryer) to ignite.
“So who is to blame for this problem”?
I say there is no culprit in this scenario. If you want to blame anything, blame our fast paced lifestyle. Gone are the times when laundry day was a full days work. We all want instant gratification and instantaneous results - even with our laundry chores.
Calculating true venting length
Manufacturers generally suggest a venting length of 15 feet to be the maximum. As service technicians we commonly see venting lengths of forty feet or more.
”So how do I know if my venting is too long”?
If you want to determine the actual length of your venting do the following:
(An elbow or abrupt turn is equivalent to an additional 4 feet)
1. Measure all the straight lengths and add them together
2. Count all the turns or elbows and multiply this number by 4
3. Add up the totals
Example 20 feet of venting with 4 turns would actually be:
20 feet + 4X4 feet = 36 feet
Don’t be surprised by the true equivalent length of your venting. In modern homes it can be substantial. Often it is 300% longer than recommended by the manufacturers.
Telltale signs
If the blockage becomes critical the dryer will stop doing its job properly. As a homeowner watch for the following signs that the venting may be starting to block.
· Clothes coming out wet
· Excess lint left on clothes at cycle end
· Inside of dryer feels wet
· Taking too long to dry a load
· Clothes very hot at end of cycle
· Electrical consumption greatly increased
So as a consumer what can you do to alleviate this problem? Well you cannot move the laundry room. The best thing you can do is to be aware that the problem exists. Lastly, consider taking down the venting and cleaning out the lint buildup during your annual spring cleaning. A small investment in time could make your family safer.
Repairing Fire Damage
Fire causes considerable damage to any home and its contents. Repairing fire damage process should be taken up immediately and with utmost care because if they are not proper then they may cause more damage. Repairing fire damage is not an easy task. Many things like carpets, draperies, upholstered furniture etc, can be refurbished but the items, which are severely scorched by water, cannot be mended.
Fire generally creates damages of visible soot and invisible odor. Removing both of them can be a tedious task and surely needs professional help. Since repairing fire damage is extremely costly and can cause severe other more damages, it is a good idea to hire an agency with good references. Before hiring an agency, first thing is to inform insurance agent and take their suggestions and advice to assess the damages. They provide you helpful hints to prevent further damage, to determine which items can be refurbished and estimate the cost of deodorizing and cleaning your house. They suggest you the appropriate equipments and chemicals required to remove fire smoke odor and soot.
Repairing fire damage includes removing smoke odor from household textiles, from home, from clothing and preventing further damage. For removing smoke odor from household textiles Ozone treatment is done which provides an oxidizing agent that creates a sweet smelling air. Removing the smoke odor from home is done through thermal fogging, which opens the pores of the walls and neutralizes the smoke odor. Dry cleaning is the most common option available to remove the smoke odor from clothing exposed to fire damage. Many clothing are subjected to careful wet cleaning process. To remove smoke odor from carpet, draperies, upholstered furniture appropriate chemicals and right equipments should be used. The house is cleaned once again after repairing the fire damage. Thus repairing fire damage is a lengthy procedure involving care of each and every item of the house.
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