Fire fighters, EMT's and LEO's ya'll please chime in.

The last time we had this kind of nasty cold roll through there were numerous house fires throughout the state. Most were caused by people being stupid with space heaters, like putting them on carpet or next to the gas can stashed in their laundry room.
Ya'll tell some obvious or not so obvious stuff you have seen to help folks prevent that kind of crap from happening.

Do not ever plug a space heater into an extension cord or power strip. They should always go straight into the wall.

I’ve always wanted the answer as to why not. The only power strip I own have built in circuit breakers. I don’t use space heaters but was curious.

Pulls too much current.

I think a lot of the fires start from lack of safe clearances from the heat source.

People will put them near junk or in an area a dog/kid can bump it over onto carpet or trash,

I’ve been in several houses that use an open oven to heat their house.

Seems it would pull the same current (amps), no matter what it is plugged into?

Heater pulls the same amount of current, no matter what it's plugged in to. The issue is that the power strip can't handle the current. The heater causes the power strip to overheat


Why You Shouldn’t Use Space Heaters with Power Strips and Extension Cords

Think twice before plugging a heater into a power strip

Right, but the power strip is not rated as high as the wall outlet. Wall outlets are 15 or sometimes 20 amps. A regular 6-outlet power strip is probably not rated as high, per outlet.

Another one that gets overlooked is the greasy fume hood over the stove top. I gotta clean mine, and ya'll should do the same. The grease will build up in side it over time but will eventually get to a flash point.

Worked in the power industry 35+ years. Over loading the power grid causes all ahead aches. Turn off what is not needed lights,washing-drying clothes, fanning doors going in and out. If a large outage happens it can time to get it all back on even after the repairs are made. Emergency responders and critical response personal will be out keeping all us safe. Thank you

I pulled a guy in a wheelchair out of a house fire during the last go around. Been a minute. He positioned his portable generator exhaust next to his siding. Flames were a few feet from his head when I made entry and rolled him out. He was laying down as close as he could to horizontal in his wheel chair when I found him.

I need the proper SOP for back feeding my house with a 4500 watt generator

I’ve been to several, where after a power outage, momma lights candles throughout the house……. pets, kids, etc knock those candles over or they went to sleep without blowing them out.

Also been to a couple where families had heat lamps for their pets too close to exterior siding. Those fires will run right up to the attic with a quickness.

Thanks. I will unplug mine from the power strip. I've had the strip to pop off a few times. I guess I always thought that was the built in safety in using a power strip.

Most electric space heaters these days cut off when they aren't level

The real fun starts when all the sprinkler systems start thawing. Lots of alarms being called in that day. 😩