Preventing house fires should always be a priority, but if
you're like most Americans, you think you're at very little risk
of ever experiencing a house fire. This attitude, however, can
be almost as dangerous as fire itself. Outside of the former
Soviet Bloc, Americans have the highest fire death rate in the
industrialized world. In fact, in the past year there were
530,500 structure fires that caused 3,000 civilian deaths,
15,350 civilian injuries and $10.6 billion in property damage,
according to the National Fire Prevention Association. As a
former professional home inspector who has been through
thousands of homes, I've become a skilled observer of the
obvious--and not so obvious--sources of house fires. When
outside temperatures drop, fire risks increase. To keep your
family safe and prevent house fires, consider the following.
Healthy heating equipment Faulty heating equipment (including
furnaces, fireplaces, wood stoves and portable heaters) is the
second leading cause of fire deaths. To prevent a fir