Garage Fire Prevention Guide
When you first think of house fires, where does your mind go? Probably not the garage, right? It should though. Besides the kitchen, the garage is the area in your home most susceptible to fires. According to the U.S Fire Administration, there are roughly 6,600 garage fires per year resulting in upwards of $450 million in damages. To help prevent that from happening, the Overhead Door Company of Augusta has compiled a list of helpful tips on garage fire prevention.
Install Fire Safety Devices
Every other room in your home has a smoke alarm, why shouldn’t your garage? Smoke detectors are ideal for detecting smoldering fires as well as poisonous gases while heat alarms go off once the room reaches a certain temperature. Regardless of which model you opt for, make sure you or your electrician connects it to the alarm system inside your home. That way, if an alarm is triggered in the garage, you’ll be notified. Just remember to change the batteries regularly so you don’t have to do it in the middle of the night.
Store Flammable Materials Elsewhere
Most people view their garage as a storage space for everything from tools to athletic equipment to gardening supplies. All too often though, people use their garages to store unsafe, flammable materials including gas, varnish, lighter fluid, aerosol, turpentine, paint thinner, and more. These highly-flammable materials can cause serious damage to your home if they catch fire. If you can, consider storing them in a separate structure — like an actual shed — in order to minimize damage if the worst does happen. If that’s not possible, invest in a few fire-retardant storage containers.
Get Rid of Negative Outlets
To prevent those materials from sparking, double-check the wiring of each outlet and make sure that the plates are all secured and nothing is exposed. Next, go through the devices in your garage and only plug in the things that are absolutely essential — overcrowding outlets is a surefire way to cause a short.
Get a Fire-Rated Garage Door
The Overhead Door of Augusta offers plenty of fire-rated doors for both your home and business, each of which can be tailored to your exact specifications. Call us today to hear about all our options or schedule an appointment with one of our technicians to find out everything about garage fire prevention.
