With the weather starting to get colder people are doing whatever it takes to stay warm.
An attic fire in Ashland, Saturday, isbelieved to have been caused by a stove pipe not properly maintained, serves as a reminder to use caution when firing up those chimneys, heaters, and wood stoves.
“Every year this time of year any time you have homes that have wood stoves or their burning wood products, they create a bi-product called creosote and that creosote builds up,” said Dana Sallee of Ashland Fire.
“It is probably one of the most difficult fires to put out because of access its beneath the ceiling and bellow the roof and those are hard places for us to get there.”
To try and prevent fires like that from happeninghe says keep wood stove’s maintained by cleaning out the piping at least once a year and make sure you are using the right materials.
“A lot of wood thats green. That’s not really dry thats another reason why you can get a lot of build up in the flu, it can damage the flu. If it catches on fire it can crack the brick and that allows fire to get into the attic space.”
Another alternative to keeping your house warm could come from space heaters, such as oil radiating heaters or infrared heaters.
Katy Ratliff from Home Depot said, “the oil will heat up so it continually radiates it doesnt kick on and off creating the energy to be used a little bit more.”
But no matter what it is that you’ll be using this season,Sallee says be aware of your surroundings.
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