What Causes the Majority of Household Fires

Are you worried about the devastating effects of a fire in your home?  Do you fully understand all of the risks and causes of fires?  By understanding how a fire can negatively affect your home, property, and loved ones, you can prevent them from happening.  This can save you from the troubles of having to make repairs, file property claims in South Florida, and go through a lengthy insurance claims process.  There are a few main causes of household fires that you should know about to prevent them from happening.

Cooking

Stoves, open flames, grills, microwaves, and other cooking appliances are often the top contributors to household fires.  When you are cooking, take the precautions to protect your home from any fires.  Avoid leaving dishrags near open flames when you are cooking, and make sure that you turn the stovetop and oven off after each usage.  

Electric

Electrical fires are also common in houses that don't have proper wiring or don't detect the issues in a timely manner.  When you have faulty wire connections or you have overloaded your circuits, you may cause fires to start from too much electrical current running through your home.  This can first cause smoking that can be put out before the fire spreads.

Heating Appliances

Heating appliances, like space heaters, are also a major cause of fires in homes.  These appliances are often left neglected or too close to other hazards, which results in igniting a fire that can quickly spread.  Although cold temperatures are infrequent in Florida, you will still want to avoid using space heaters whenever you are feeling cold.

Smoking

If you have a smoking habit, you may want to keep it outside of the house.  When you leave a cigarette burning inside an ashtray, this can still cause a fire to spread throughout your home.  By keeping all smoking habits outside of the house, you remove this threat from the home and keep the sparks and fire outside.  Better yet, you may even want to try to kick the habit to remove this threat entirely.

Candles

Be sure to keep all open flames and burning candles in areas where people can watch over them.  Avoid using candles in areas that don't have people, as these can cause fires to start without you even knowing it.  Many people leave candles unsupervised in areas like hallways or bathrooms, and before you can extinguish the fire, it has already spread throughout the home.

These are just a few of the causes of many fires that can affect your home.  When you are concerned about the threat of fires, you will want to take the right precautions to protect your home, belongings, and loved ones.  In the event of a fire, contact the professionals at Five Star Claims Adjusting to help with your property claims in South Florida today.