Electricity makes our lives easier but you still have to be mindful. Thankfully, Grand Forks Fire & Rescue is here to help.
Deputy Fire Chief Richard Piché says the most important safety tip to remember is having a qualified professional install electrical work:
“Make sure that you have somebody that’s qualified to do any work in your home, changing out receptacles, getting, adding, removing any splices or anything you have to do or any upgrading, absolutely get it done by a qualified electrician.”
You should also have newly-purchased and remodelled homes inspected professionally. Piché adds that depending on the gauge, extension chords can be overloaded, and should only be used temporarily. Additionally, major appliances should be plugged directly into the wall instead of extension chords or power bars. Fuses being blown, circuit breakers tripping frequently, and a tingling feeling or burning smell coming from electrical appliances are all signs you should contact your landlord or qualified electrician.
He says to only use one heat-producing appliance at a time:
“It’s those items that tend to overload a circuit, like things like coffee makers and space heaters, they have quite a big draw, like an average little space heater is 1500 watts right? So those are things you want to be careful that you’re not overloading a circuit.”
Piché says electrical fires do happen in our area:
“We’ve had a receptacle fire because we had an overloaded power bar, we’ve gone to a fire while that happened, it was way overloaded and the power bar heated up and started to melt. Luckily it didn’t turn into a fire but concerned the citizen enough that they called us to have a look.”
He adds that another example is incidents involving older electrical wiring in walls. You should consider installing Ground and Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters in your home, and test them as recommended. GFFR also urges you to ensure you’re installing the correct wattage of light-bulbs.