Ways to Prevent Fire Damage and Accidents that Protect Your Family in Hockessin.

11/17/2019 (Permalink)

SERVPRO knows prevention, let us show your Hockessin home.

Let us help your Hockessin home prevent fire damage.

A fire requires both fuel and oxygen to burn. While it produces heat, it also requires initial heat to start consuming both fuel and oxygen. A fire can happen in any part of your Hockessin home, damaging both your belongings and your family members. Fire can begin in different ways and places.

Fortunately, there are many ways that residents in Hockessin can prevent fire damage from harming their property or causing injuries that hurt their family members. Many of these involve keeping heat sources away from fuels. Oxygen makes up almost 30% of the air, so we need to control errant sparks, instead. 

Fuel sources come in many forms – wood, paper, carpeting, clothing, plastics – in short, almost everything inside your home can feed a fire. Sparks and localized areas of intense heat happen within our homes in many ways that we often do not notice. Friction creates enough heat to light a match or lighter, or it can also wear a hole into an electric cord. 

Electrical cords

Exposed wires can spark, catching fuel items on fire. Because of this, SERVPRO technicians never place cords underneath rugs or mats. We also check our equipment for cuts in cords and make repairs before they can worsen. Sometimes this means replacing the cord with a new one of the same gauge. Smaller wires should not be used because smaller cords cannot handle the amount of electricity needed to power the equipment. Hanging cords on nails or hooks can also cause the wires inside to break. 

Cooking

Cooking fires do not always happen because of grease or oil that caught on fire. Fire damage can start when towels are hung too near the stove. Frayed edges on a time-worn pair of hot pads or oven mitts can also catch fire. For the same reason, avoiding loose sleeves while cooking is always advised. Handles turned away from the edge should not force anyone cooking to place their hand over another burner. Microwave ovens, toasters, and electric grills need space around them to not only keep boxed foods and other items from burning, but to also prevent heat building up inside the appliance.

Storage areas

Garages and other places where dampness occurs might seem like an impossible place for a fire to start in stacks of newspapers or old magazines, but spontaneous combustion can happen if just the right chemical reaction takes place. These items also provide bedding for pests, and disposing them avoids many problems. Storing flammable liquids should only happen in well-labeled containers. When using gas-powered items like lawnmowers or chainsaws, you should let the motor cool down before refilling.

There are many ways in addition to these to help prevent problems that can cause fire damage or personal injury. When someone becomes injured, seek medical help immediately. When your home in Newport or near Greenville sustains fire damage, call SERVPRO of Hockessin / Elsmere at (302) 992-0104. We're here, 24 hours each and every day of the year.

To learn more about Hockessin, click here.