With space heaters being the cause of 11 house fires last year alone, they are an object of concern to Moncton firefighters.
Division Chief of Fire Prevention Charles Leblanc for the Moncton Fire Department says the public needs to be properly educated before using a space heater.
“And somehow we need to rectify that either through manufacturing or basically through better public knowledge of how to use them,” says LeBlanc.
He adds now that cooler weather is here, people are beginnig to rely on space heaters for warmth without necessarily being aware of all the potential hazards.
“What we’ve noticed over the last probably three or four years, we’ve had definitely an increase in basically space heaters,” says LeBlanc. “We have a fairly large number of fires that are directly linked to space heaters, or little heaters that people buy at the store.”
LeBlanc says space heaters are designed for temporary use only, but many people ignore those instructions and run them continuously.
“You’ve just got to hold on to the power cord to see that it turns pretty hot in just a very short amount of time,” cautions LeBlanc. “Basically that heat stays there and then with time anything within the heater itself will start to deteriorate and that’s when you start having your issues.”
Today is the last day of Fire Prevention Week and three open houses are being held.
One at the MFD station at 99 Hildegard Drive in Moncton (99 Hildegard Drive), another at 500 Gauvin Road station in Dieppe and in Riverview at the station at 650 Pinewood Road.
