Top 5 Causes of House Fires
Your daily, seemingly insignificant tasks may result in deadly house fires. To help prevent house fires, you should learn the underlying causes.
In-depth research by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) shows that more than 350,000 homes catch fire per year in the U.S, which accounts for about 2,000 deaths. Often homes catch fire as a result of carelessness and misuse of electrical and heating appliances.
An accidental fire arising from a common task may spread uncontrollably at a frightening speed and destroy your home within seconds. Home fires put not only you and your family at risk but also endangers your valuables. In fact, even the smallest fire may result in damage worth thousands. Here we discuss the top 5 causes of house fires:
1. Cooking
Cooking accidents are the most common causes of house fires. In fact, research shows that they cause about 48% of all residential fires, while NFPA states that unattended cooking is the leading cause of home fires.
More often than not, grease that overheats on a stove/oven results in home fires. The reason is that grease is super flammable; thus, it combusts spontaneously upon reaching a certain point. Unfortunately, once grease ignites, smothering it is a challenging task.
2. Heating Appliances
With the winter season comes a spike in the use of HVAC systems. Unfortunately, heating appliances are the second leading cause of residential fires accounting for about 25,000 home fires and more than 300 deaths per year in the U.S.
Space heaters and baseboard heaters may cause a fire if curtains, laundry, blankets, fabrics, and furniture comes in close contact with them.
3. Faulty Wiring
One factor that homeowners often overlook is faulty wiring. However, according to research, electrical faults result in 51,000 fires, 1,400 injuries, 500 deaths, and $1.3 billion property damage each year.
Typically, short circuits causing sparks ignite building materials and, in turn, cause an electric fire. Another possible reason may be overloading a circuit with the current, which results in the wires overheating. Electrical problems cause about 10% of all residential fires and are almost always deadly and devastating.
4. Smoking
Not only is smoking detrimental to health, but it also causes about 1,000 deaths and 3,000 injuries by causing fires. More often than not, these fires start when homeowners are sleeping, making it one of the deadliest home fires.
Typically, fires occur because of cigarettes that are not put out properly. Research reveals that 73% of all house fire deaths start in the bedroom or lounge. Thus, it’s best to keep cigarettes outside your lounge and bedroom.
5. Candles
Candles may appear harmless. However, statistics show that about 350 casualties in the U.K. start because of candles. The reason being that unattended candles can easily lead to your room burning down into flames.
The Bottom Line
From cooking accidents to misuse of electrical appliances, your home consists of an abundance of objects that result in devastating fires. Keeping the common causes of house fires in your mind helps ensure you take adequate steps to prevent such occurrences.
