What Can Homeowners Do to Prevent Basement Laundry Room Fires?

10/20/2020 (Permalink)

Inspect your dryer vents often for signs of lint buildup.

SERVPRO Professionals Offer Fire Restoration Services for Glen Head Properties

Clothes dryer fires account for as much as $233 million in property damage across an average of 13,820 reported incidents each year, according to the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA). These costly disasters can be overwhelming for Glen Head homeowners if the cause is the ignition of lint buildup or an unforeseen electrical failure. 

SERVPRO technicians receive extensive training and accreditation to perform fire restoration for Glen Head homeowners per Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) standards. This firm’s readying and SERVPRO Corp’s comprehensive programs provide numerous educational tools that include: 

• Comprehensive 15-day, hands-on training for franchise owners at SERVPRO’s corporate training facility.
• Certification training for technicians that covers both mitigation and restoration
• Online learning resources available for technicians and staff alike to improve their knowledge of current restoration industry standards
• Credit and noncredit courses are available to SERVPRO staff
• Continuing education forums are also provided to professionals in real estate and insurance 

What Measures Can Homeowners Take to Prevent Clothes Dryer Fires? 

Glen Head homeowners can perform a variety of cleaning and maintenance tasks that go a long way toward reducing the fire risk from their clothes dryers, such as: 

• Treat flammable stains with care. Clothes soiled by oil, gas, or volatile chemicals, paint, and cleaning solutions can all pose a fire risk.
• Wash soiled clothes more than once and air-dry.
• If using a dryer, operate it on the lowest setting.
• Smother a fire before it can spread by keeping the dryer closed should ignition occur.
• Replace plastic or foil flex ducts to ensure quality operations. These types of vents can quickly collect lint and create upkeep challenges. When possible, replace accordion ducts with metal ducts that are secured with clamps or foil tape in place of sheet metal screws to minimize the risk of lint buildup in your dryer ducts.
• Keep the lint filter clean. Lint accumulation alone accounts for almost a third of all clothes dryer fires. Clean the filter after every load of laundry that goes through the dryer. 

SERVPRO technicians advise homeowners to avoid performing repairs until a claims adjuster has evaluated your laundry room. 

What Helpful Tips Aid Homeowners with Cleaning Their Dryer Vents?

While newer models of dominant clothes dryer brands can detect vent blockages and shut off to prevent a disaster, these sensors cannot always detect partial blockages that can still cause fires in Glen Head. When cleaning the vent in your home, keep these tips in mind: 

• Disconnect the dryer and carefully move it away from the wall so you can access the back of the unit. Make sure to shut off the gas near your dryer if it has a gas hookup.
• Remove the duct from the dryer and carefully clean out lint and debris with a vacuum. Clean the ducts one section at a time, if possible, and reconnect them securely with foil tape or clamps.
• Take some time to clean the area behind and underneath the dryer thoroughly. Minimizing dirt and debris around the dryer means less fuel for a potential fire.
• Every so often, check the exterior dryer vent for obstructions like snow or leaves that can affect safe operation. 

While there are many tasks you can undertake to prevent a fire, disasters can still occur for various reasons. Your local SERVPRO team is ready to send an emergency crew to your property within hours of your call to begin cleanup and minimize property damage.

How Do SERVPRO Professionals Clean Fire-Damaged Sheet Metal Vents?

Ventilation cleanup can pose a unique challenge. If your dryer vents are made of foil accordion ducts, replacement is much more cost-effective. Sheet metal vents, however, can often be salvaged with the help of agitation tools like whips, augers, and coarse brushes for light to moderate soot deposits. Disassembly and cleaning with a heavy-duty alkaline solution may be necessary for heavier soils. 

Other areas of the basement typically require cleanup, even in the event of a contained dryer fire. Soot particles settle in nearby nooks and crannies, particularly in vents and appliances, spreading odors through the home, leading to potential device failures. Worse still, these residues become acidic upon contact with moisture, which can make a nearby washing machine particularly vulnerable to corrosion. 

SERVPRO technicians carefully clean and deodorize your property with EPA-registered antibacterial solutions, including a wide selection of proprietary cleaners. Ventilation box fans that run at speeds of 3,000 to 5,000 cubic feet per minute (CFM) exchange air 40 times to remove the presence of chemical residues after thermal fogging. 

SERVPRO of Glen Cove / Jericho can return your home to a preloss state that makes you feel “Like it never even happened.” Call (516) 671-1919 to start the mitigation process.