Common Causes of House Fires: Essential Tips for West Texans

Recently, Lubbock Fire Rescue provided some advice on how to prevent house fires. This opens the door for not only how to stop them, but to learn more about how they get started in the first place.

Lubbock Fire Rescue On Preventing House Fires

Recently, Everything Lubbock spoke with Lyle Jones from Lubbock Fire Rescue who outlined safety tips that all West Texans must know.

You can read about the full interview on the Everything Lubbock website, but some highlights of the talk involved never leaving food on the stove unattended, limiting the use of extension cords to short-term durations only, and cleaning the lint from dryer traps between each load of laundry.

Now we can look at what causes most house fires here in West Texas and across the state.

Lubbock: Be Alert to These Common House Fire Starters

As we are seeing incredibly high temperatures this summer already, the last thing we need is a fire in the house to match the heat outside. This is why it's important to identify the most common causes of house fires, beginning with stoves.

If you have a gas stove, it's crucial to turn it off immediately after cooking as this accounts for about 44% of all house fire incidents in the U.S. No matter the stove, cooking with oil can also be very dangerous.

Always remember that smothering is the best way to put out a grease fire, not water (unless you want to reenact Mt. Vesuvius erupting over Pompeii). You should also have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen at all times and learn how to use it.

Electrical issues and heating equipment are also included in the list. You should always keep space heaters at least five feet away from anything flammable, especially fabric and clothing.

Regularly have your chimney inspected, and never use your oven or stovetop as a heating source.

Finally, cigarettes and candles are responsible for many house fires across Texas. As smoking is the leading cause of house fires each year, according to CWF Restoration, it's important to properly extinguish a lit cigarette before it's discarded.

The same can be said about candles. Forgetting to blow out a candle before bed or leaving them unattended around children, pets, or anything flammable can spell disaster for your safety and your home.

Let's do our part in preventing house fires here in Lubbock. Aside from the life-threatening potential, can we all agree that it would just be one big hassle to deal with that none of us really want to mess with right now?