Burning House

Prevent a House Fire This Year With Our Simple Tips

MISHAWAKA/FORT WAYNE/PLYMOUTH, IN; ST. JOSEPH/NILES, MI — Google the name of your town and “house fire” and you won’t have to go far into the past so see tragedy in your area.
“Unfortunately, winter is the season of house fires,” said Brian West, general manager at local HVAC and plumbing company Home Comfort Experts.
Often these news stories come with the terms “space heater,” or “dryer fire.” These, and multiple other heating-related fire sources, are the cause of very preventable fires.
First of all, West said, regular furnace maintenance from a reputable firm will prevent major furnace catastrophes in your home such as fire roll outs, broken heat exchangers and carbon monoxide poisoning.
“When a furnace isn’t working properly, people tend to rely on space heaters, which open the door to so many possible dangers,” he said. “A furnace is nothing more than a controlled fire in your home. Keep it controlled.”
Home Comfort Experts Operations Manager James Olesen said, “At your annual tune-up, which should cost less than $100, an expert technician will also talk to you about getting your dryer vents cleaned.”
The U.S. Fire Administration cites 2,900 dryer fires are reported each year, peaking in January and causing an average of five deaths each year.
Olesen said, “Most people clean their lint trap after drying clothes, but tiny bits always escape into the machine and all the way out the vent. Lint is like tinder to a tiny spark in your gas dryer and it builds up over time.”
Special equipment will ream out dryer venting from inside the machine all the way outside the home, Olesen said.
“You wouldn’t believe the literal pounds of lint we have gotten out of these things,” he said. “I’m talking bucketfuls. It’s surprising there aren’t even more fires.”
West stressed another important component to preventing fires is ensuring your gas-burning appliances such as a water heater, oven, dryer and, of course, the furnace, are properly sized and installed to begin with.
“We’ve got a scrapbook of bad installs from fly-by-night companies,” West said. “It’s stunning what inexperienced or greedy technicians will try to get away with. We’re constantly called to correct these costly and dangerous mistakes to prevent a household disaster.”

Contact Home Comfort Experts today. We work to ensure your home is comfortable at all times. Tell us the challenges you are facing and we will design a solution that resolves your issues while fitting into your budget. Be sure to ask about our other specials and learn more about our financing options.

Home Comfort Experts is a plumbing, heating and cooling company serving residential homes throughout Northern Indiana and Southwest, Michigan. It is locally owned and operated and emphasizes employee training of nearly 200 additional hours each year. All technicians are drug and background tested and expected to perform at above-standard levels, leaving homes clean and customers informed. Additionally, Home Comfort Experts offers financing to make the purchase of an efficient system affordable for the families we serve.