Since most new homes now have their dryers vented through the walls and out to the roof it is important to have your dryer vent cleaned once a year. Keep your family safe and prevent a fire caused by lint build up.
Clothes Dryer Fire Prevention
Very few people realize the importance of clothes dryer fire prevention. However, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there are an estimated annual 15,500 fires, 20 deaths and 300 injuries due to clothes dryer fires. Several hundred people a year are also subjected to carbon monoxide poisoning from improper dryer vent setups. The financial costs come to nearly $100,000,000 per year. In some cases faulty appliances are to blame, but many fires can be prevented with proper dryer venting.
How a Clothes Dryer Fire Occurs
Lint accumulation and reduced airflow feed on each other to provide conditions ripe for a fire. Lint is a highly combustible material, which, interestingly enough, is one of the ingredients in a recipe for home-made fire starters. A number of dryer vent problems contribute to this.
A growing problem
Traditionally, most clothes dryers were in the basement. However, nowadays many newer homes tend to have dryers located away from an outside wall in bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and hall closets. These new locations mean dryers tend to be vented longer distances and vents are generally installed with sharp turns and bends to accommodate the structure of the home. As a result, dryer vents are harder to reach, and also create more places for lint to gather. The ideal solution is to have short, straight, dryer duct venting. However, a dryer vent booster, while not the ideal approach, can improve your dryer venting in cases where your venting is longer and/or has more bends than it should. In addition to creating a fire hazard, if the venting is too long and/or has two many bends, it will cause your dryer to take much longer than necessary to dry loads.
Appliance Efficiency
A clean exhaust duct prevents heat, moisture and, in the case of gas clothes dryers, carbon monoxide from being trapped in your home. When this type of spillage occurs, energy, natural resources and time are all wasted because your appliance works too hard and runs longer than necessary.
Wear on Your Clothes Dryer
If your dryer takes twice as long to dry clothes as it should, the number of loads that it will dry in its lifetime is cut in half. When the dryer runs at higher than designed temperatures, the life of your clothes dryer decreases even more. This can lead to the heating element burning out or a fire could ignite as a result of overworked safety controls.
What Causes Clothes Dryer Fires?
Clothes dryers must vent hot air from the dryer to the outside of the house. Lint becomes detached from the clothes and is carried out through the exhaust.
If lint builds up in the exhaust pipe or inside the dryer, it slows the air movement through the dryer and out the exhaust. The slower air movement causes more lint to collect on the backside of the dryer drum, on the dryer motor, or on the electrical connections inside the dryer, placing the highly combustible lint on top of and adjacent to heat sources inside the dryer.
Apartment fire triggered by clogged dryer vent leaves Bath residents homeless
A fire that started late Monday, January 16, 2012, in a dryer vent destroyed this apartment at 20D Windjammer Way in Bath and caused significant damage to the adjoining apartments. A propane tank on a gas grill, shown in the foreground, added to the severity of the blaze.
By Christopher Cousins, BDN Staff
BATH, Maine — A dryer vent clogged with lint triggered a fire Monday night that has left the occupants of three apartments in Bath without a home.
Bath Fire Chief Steve Hinds said one of the occupants, who called 911 before evacuating his neighbors from the building, “did everything right” and likely minimized the damage to more apartments and possibly prevented injuries.
The lone resident at 20D Windjammer Way noticed flames out his back window after hearing snapping and crackling noises at about 11:30 p.m. Monday, said Hinds. By the time fire crews arrived, the flames had reached the building’s roof structure. The man’s apartment was gutted by flames.
“There’s not much left of that unit inside,” said Hinds. “There’s nothing to salvage there. There was fire everywhere.”
The scene of the fire is part of a large housing development called Maritime Apartments.
There was also heavy damage to the adjoining apartments at 20C and 20E Windjammer Way, particularly on the second story and attic spaces. Hinds said it’s possible that the residents of 20A and 20B Windjammer Way will be able to return to their homes once electricity to those units is separated from the rest and turned back on.
Hinds said the fire started in a dryer vent in a laundry and utility room that is shared by the residents of the five-unit apartment block. Compounding the fire was a propane grill outside. The relief valve on the grill’s tank let go because of the intense heat and shot flames against the building. Read more about this fire..........
"Lint" is a Four Letter Word for "Fire Risk"By Bob Formisano, About.com Guide January 1, 2012 What is a four letter word for fire risk? Yes, the lint in your dryer can be a major risk because your dryer vent hose may be improperly installed or never cleaned. And if you have an electric dryer, your fire risk is even greater. Well, I found those stats from a 1999 report developed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) shocking also! But the good news is that the fires were not due to anything inherently dangerous about the dryer as an appliance, but more so the lack of proper maintenance by the user. As it turns out the fire originated most frequently from two places: the dryer venting and the lint trap. It bothers me when I find out after the fact that I was supposed to do maintenance on something that I did not know I was supposed to do. Don't think you are alone in being surprised in what I'm going to tell you. There is probably an unbelievable amount of dangerous lint lining the walls of your dryer ducting and inside your dryer right now that you need to clean out. It does not matter that you regularly clean out the lint filter in your dryer, "lint happens." Loads of clothes taking longer and longer to dry is a classic sign of lint build-up. Read more about this article.........Dryer fire; No one injured at Scottview Apartments. Friday, January 13, 2012 No one was injured during a fire which broke out inside the Scottview Apartments building Wednesday night.
Fort Scott Fire Department Chief Paul Ballou said the fire originated in a clothes dryer in the laundry room located in the middle of the building's first floor. Several agencies responded to the fire about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday and helped move tenants of the building, located at 315 Scott Ave., to a lower level hallway, away from the fire and smoke. Some residents were picked up by their family members until it was safe to return to their homes. "There was a lot of smoke in there," Ballou said.
CHAPEL HILL -- A dryer fire forced the evacuation of part of UNC-Chapel Hill's family student housing complex on Christmas Eve, fire officials reported Sunday. There were no injuries. The Chapel Hill Fire Department got the call from 1900 Baity Hill Drive at 6:46 p.m. The caller had told a 911 operator her clothes dryer was on fire. Reports from the complex's alarm company confirmed the smoke alarm and sprinkler had gone off. The first crew confirmed partial evacuation of the building, entered the apartment and found the sprinkler head over the laundry area had limited the fire to the dryer. The crew finished putting the fire out as other crews made sure everyone was out and that the fire had not spread. Read more here........... Fire Damages Groton Apartments Several people were inside the apartment complex when flames erupted Monday.By Bob ConnorsMonday, Jan 9, 2012 | Updated 2:29 PM ESTFirefighters doused flames that broke out in a Groton apartment complex Monday. The fire started around 12:30 p.m. in an apartment at 239 Ohio Avenue, according to fire officials. The flames spread to an apartment at 241 Ohio Avenue as well. It appears the fire began outside the six-unit apartment complex and spread inside, fire officials said. Most of the damage was to the back of the building. Several people were home at the time of the fire, but everyone was able to get out safely. The apartments are home to naval personnel and civilian residents, fire officials said. Fire investigators were searching for a cause, but said a dryer vent may be responsible for the fire. |
