Mar 13, 2007 7:26 pm US/Central
Fire Prevention For Your Clothes Dryer
by Jeanette Trompeter
(WCCO)
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Cleaning your lint trap is just the first thing you can do to prevent a fire in your clothes dryer.
CBS
Fires in clothes dryers kill or injure hundreds of people every year and the Consumer Product Safety Commission said they do more than $84.4 million in property damage.
An estimated 15,000 fires are associated with clothes dryers each year.
Deputy State Fire Marshal Daniel Bernardy recommends homeowners clean their dryers twice a year.
"The volatility of dryer lint is incredible. And what I mean is that is a simple spark will ignite that and cause a trail of the fire and will follow that lint, wherever it leads," said Bernardy.
He said it's not only important to keep the dryer lint trap clean but to also take the dryer pipes apart to get rid of the lint inside.
Bernardy also recommends dusting underneath the dryer.
"Dust that starts here and burns and gets hot, and will catch the fuzz that's down here, and that will follow the lint trail all the way until it finds something else to burn," he said.
One way to clean the vent on the outside of the house is to use an old hanger or wire.
"As you can see, we have lint all the way to the outside, hanging free, underneath of their vent flap here," said Bernardy.
He also recommends never leaving your dryer on when you are not home.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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