Columbus Fire and Rescue discusses hidden fire hazard inside your home
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s a fire hazard in your home that may often get overlooked – your clothes dryer.
Columbus Fire and Rescue Chief Duane Hughes said that when they see dryer fires, they often occur due to a lack of preventative maintenance, and lint is highly flammable.
“A lot of people don’t check their lint traps. Or if they do, they do it irregularly,” Hughes said.
Chief Hughes said his department recommends that anytime you remove a load of laundry, you check the lint trap and remove the lint.
“What tends to happen is those that don’t check their lint traps, don’t keep them regularly clean, you get an accumulation that’s built up,” Hughes said. “The heat or sometimes just repeated use of that dryer will cause that lint to ignite, and it’s a pretty bad situation. ”
Every month, Hughes recommends looking around where the lint trap is vented and ensuring that the ducting for the dryer is vented completely to the outside. Also, look at the exterior vent and make sure any accumulation of lint is removed there as well.
“There have been many instances where we’ve come and the ducting did not go all the way through the exterior wall,” Hughes said. “So, the lint was just accumulating in dead spaces and caused fires that were very difficult to put out.”
Hughes said in Columbus, they don’t see these types of fires too frequently. But when they do, they tend to be incredibly destructive.
“These fires are usually deep-set,” Hughes said. “By the time the fire department responds, they’ve caused a tremendous amount of damage before we’re able to put them out. ”
So what are the signs to look for?
“If you see behind your dryer that you have an accumulation of lint that’s actually on the walls and outside of the ducting, that’s a sign you need to pay attention,” Hughes said. “You’ve got an obstruction or some loose ducting there. Anytime there are smells that are not normally occurring with the drying of clothes, such as the smell of burning or chemical smells, burning plastics, that definitely needs to be investigated. ”
Hughes said there is a misconception that dryers powered by electricity are safer than those powered by natural gas or open flame drying, but the hazard is the same.
He also wants to remind citizens to remove dryer sheets in between loads, as they can also pose a fire hazard.
