Wilmington Fire Dept offers tips on how to safely heat your home as temps outside plummet

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — When the temperatures go down outside, many people are ready to crank them up inside.

A convenient way to warm up your home is with space heaters. While convenient, they aren’t the safest option.

“Those do get hot. As a result of that, you can get burns on your feet, burns on your arms, anything like that,” Wilmington Fire Department Master Firefighter Nick Shepard said. “As I said before, let’s try to make sure you’re at least three feet away from any kind of objects whether it is you, a table, chair, or anything like that.”

Shepard says it’s important to never leave a space heater unattended. If you’re heating up your room before bed, make sure you turn it off before falling asleep.

The department recommends you only use devices that have been fire safety tested and one of the most popular certifying agencies is UL. You can find the information if the device has been fire safety tested somewhere on it.

A common feature on safety-tested heaters is an automatic shutoff that activates if the device tips over.

Firefighter Chris Fenner says to be mindful of where you are plugging in the heaters.

“Extension cords are never a good idea when plugging in any kind of space heater,” Fenner said. “You always want to make sure they’re plugged directly into the wall outlet.”

Again, Fenner reiterates the importance of never leaving heaters unattended — especially in a child’s room.

“There’s a major potential for fire hazard in these rooms like that when this happens. You don’t want to have that happen and the baby is the first thing that is in contact with this device,” Fenner said.

Another important thing to keep in mind as the seasons change, make sure your fire detectors have fresh batteries. The firefighters say its best to change them twice a year and an easy way to remember that is to switch them when the time changes.