Fire Concerns, Heater Reminders Before Temperatures Begin Drastic Drop

Fall is here and winter is coming – and in Wisconsin, that means doing whatever you can to stay warm. But those efforts sometimes lead to fire-related issues. Division Chief of Fire Prevention Troy Haase 

says it’s important to pay attention to your heating devices. 

He points out that, “as we start to cool off at night, people start to use other types of heating – make sure heaters are made for being inside and make sure they’re plugged directly into the wall.”

Haase also encourages people to “make sure you’re testing your smoke detectors and you’re CO detectors.
Make sure you’re looking at them and testing them monthly to make sure they do
what they’re supposed to do.”

He also recommends having a plan in place just in case – and have more than one way out of any situation. But, he says “if you can’t get out, make sure that you can close your door, make sure that you stuff some stuff around it. Keep the fire and smoke away from you as long as you can. Get to the window so we know where you’re at – and hopefully someone can tell us ‘hey, there’s somebody on the second floor’ when we arrive and we can go right to that window, we don’t even have to enter to search to rescue.”

Haase says to set times that are easy to remember when it comes to changing the batteries in your detectors – like switching them at the same time you change the time on the clock for Daylight Savings.