Wondering how to prevent fire accidents in your garage and basement? Read on to find out!
A house fire is undoubtedly a devastating experience that has some pretty lasting consequences. It leads to emotional trauma as well as costly repairs. Your basement and garage are two areas in your home that are quite susceptible to fire accidents.
Residential garage fires can spread faster than fires that start in other areas of your house. This is why garage fires also cause more injuries and costly repairs than other home fires. Electrical malfunction is the most common cause of garage fires.
As for your basement, even though it is more susceptible to flooding, basement fires are also a pretty common occurrence. This is because most people keep their heat-generating equipment in this area. This is why you must learn how to prevent a fire from starting in both your garage and basement.
Tips to Prevent Garage Fire
Here are some quick tips to prevent a fire accident in your garage:
- Store all flammable materials such as oil, gasoline, paint, or varnishes outside of the garage. You can keep them in a separate shed.
- As a rule of thumb, keep flammable items on high shelves and at a safe distance from appliances that produce heat.
- Use electrical tools and appliances carefully; plug only your major appliances at a time in a socket and don’t use extension cords to charge your appliances.
- Invest in a heat alarm that will go off when it detects dangerously high temperatures. Make sure to keep it well-maintained and replace the alarm batteries once a year. Connect it with the other alarms in your home so that if it sounds, they all do too.
- Avoid filling transportable gasoline bottles inside your garage.
- Don’t use rugs, carpets, or non-fire-retardant tarps on your garage floor as they can easily absorb flammable liquids and lead to a fire.
Tips to Prevent Basement Fire
Here are some quick tips to prevent a fire accident in your basement:
- Keep all flammable materials,such as textiles, paper, and debris, at a safe distance from heating equipment and appliances such as an oil burner, furnace, water heater, wood stove, etc.
- Avoid storing trash in your basement as it will act as fuel for a fire.
- Install a smoke alarm in your basement. Test the alarm and keep it clean by removing the dust buildup at least once a month. This will ensure that the alarm continues to work perfectly all throughthe year. Make sure to connect it with the other alarms in your home so that if it sounds, they all do too.
- If you have heating equipment in your basement that burns oil, gas, or wood, then invest in a carbon monoxide alarm to prevent CO poisoning.
- To prevent flame roll-out, keep the burner access doors on your gas water heater and gas furnaces closed.
- Don’t use extension cords to plug in major appliances such as dryers and washing machines and plug them directly into wall sockets.
- Clean the lint filter of your dryer before and after each load of laundry.
- Equip your basement with arc-fault circuit interrupters (AFCIs). They are devices that prevent fires in electrical switches.
In case of a house fire, reach out to a professional fire damage repair and restoration company.
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