5 Popular Causes Of House Fires

One of the worst tragedies to happen for your home in the event of a house fire. In home fires, you can lose just about everything if not properly taken care of immediately once the fire starts. While there are a number of preventive measures to have in your home, such as smoke detectors, fire alarms, and carbon monoxide detectors, house fires still happen. This is where homeowners need to go the extra mile to ensure the safety of their home from fires. Below are the top five most common causes of house fires and how to prevent them from happening.

Cause 1: Cooking

Nine times out of ten, most fires that happen to homes usually start in the kitchen. It usually happens when people are cooking, whether electrical or gas stove top and is the leading cause of home fires. A lot of the time, residents leave something on the stove, get distracted, and forget about it. To prevent this, let your cooking be the main focus and always stay in the kitchen and beside your pan if you are using the stove. A small gesture can go a long way in fire prevention.

Cause 2: Heating

The second leading cause of home fires is the heating of the home. In New England, the winter months can be brutal, which will cause us to add additional heating sources such as electric space heaters. While using these space heaters, sheets and window curtains can come into contact with them and a fire can start. To prevent this, be sure to put the heater in a room but away from anything else that could become flammable.

Cause 3: Smoking

Smoking not only affects a person body but can affect their home, as well as smoking, is another cause of home fires. Just like with forest fires, those who smoke will lose track of their butts or throw away their still burning butts and they will come into contact with flammable objects. The same thing can happen inside your home as well if someone throws a cigarette into a trash bin and catches the contents inside to burst into flames. To prevent this, if you live with a smoke, set up a no smoking inside policy. That way you are protecting your lungs as well as your property from any potential dangers.

Cause 4: Electrical

Faulty or deteriorating electrical cords or outlets is another popular cause of fires in the home. Cords that are worn and become frayed can send sparks to flammable surfaces if not properly treated or replaced. The best way to prevent this type of fire is checking all of your electrical cords to ensure that there is no damage to the wires. If so, you will want to cover with electrical tape or replace the whole cord immediately. As an extra step, have an electrician check out all of your outlets for proper safety.

Cause 5: Candles

While candles are great to have to fill a room full of sweet fragrances, they do come with a fire causing threat as it is an open flame. An easy solution to prevent candle caused home fires, is to switch from a traditional open fire candle to an electric candle. They work the same but do not have the presence of actual fire. If you do prefer actual candles, just be sure they are away from flammable objects and are not left alone in a room.