3 Household Items that Cause Too Many Fires

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3 Household Items that Cause Too Many Fires The National Fire Protection Association releases periodic articles concerning public safety information in regards to home fires. Their articles recently cited 5 important household items that cause fire damage in Atlanta and other cities around the country. Some of them were more obvious, like candles and stoves, but others were a bit more surprising. Here are the 5 most surprising possessions you have that are actually fire hazards.

Clothes Dryers Clothes dryers. Did you know that your clothes dryer was a fire hazard? The dryer gathers its heat from a fed flame. That flame in and of itself is a hazard. Engineers design the machines to offer no danger from that flame alone though. The danger comes when you don’t clean the machine regularly. When you don’t clean the machine, lint finds its way to a flame. Lint is the perfect fire starter. It’s dry, loose, and easy to be entreated to become host to a flame. You remember that lint trap you hate to clean? Its entire purpose is to prevent these kinds of fires. When it becomes overloaded, stray lint slips through the cracks and finds its way to the pilot flame. Dryer fires often result. Avoid that problem by cleaning the lint trap after every load. You can also fight dryer fire damage in Atlanta by cleaning the back of the dryer (where more lint can be trapped), the interior, venting systems, and replacing plastic or vinyl exhaust hoses with metal alternatives. Taking special care of your dryer will help you protect your home from unexpected fire damage.

Washers Next up is washers. This one can come as a bigger shock as washers only use water. That’s true, but you’re using water in an electric machine. Water traditionally inspires sparks out of electricity.


A spark is all you need to start a fire. Electrical equipment isn’t 100% effective from the manufacturer. Regular maintenance will help you identify potential problem areas and fix them before you have to fix the house from a bigger disaster. Washers and dryers accounted for 1 out of 22 home fires from 2006 to 2010.

Electrical Infrastructure Finally, how is the electrical system of your home doing? When you purchase a home, you just expect this to work, with no chance of problems. Some expert set it up; it got inspected, and was sold by a professional. The plan is fool proof right? Like the washer incident though, not every system is perfect. In fact, many deteriorate as time goes on. Proper maintenance will keep you on the ball should you develop a dangerous situation. When statistics report that electrical systems or lighting equipment cause more than 24,000 homes to go up in flames, killing more than 300 people and injuring 800 more, it tends to motivate you to keep an eye on it. Electrical systems are incredibly important to maintain the current way of life. Everything you own runs off of electricity. Maintaining the system that runs it should be a number one priority. Explore ways to check in on your system immediately to prevent fire damage from hurting your home. Photo Credit: KREYC, Sparky,


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