Fires happen all over the world, but the fires that happen inside a person’s home are often the most preventable and all it takes is a little diligence and some common sense to discover what the fire hazards in your home are and how to get rid of them when you find them.
It is a fact that most house fires happen in the kitchen. Even though a great number of these small stove fires go unreported because they do not do any damage, you really need to learn what you can do to prevent them from happening in the first place, because it only takes a second or two for a small fire to spread into a much larger one. House fire prevention begins in the kitchen by learning that you should never leave anything on the stove unattended unless it is an emergency and you should never leave the house to go and run errands during this time unless someone is going to be there to keep an eye on the cooking.
You also need to be careful with deep fryers and electric skillets. Any appliance that emits a large amount of heat needs to be monitored consistently to make sure that it does not overheat and catch on fire and you should not ever have to use an extension cord with these. Small extension cords like the ones you would use for lamps will NOT work and will melt. If you must use an extension cord, make sure it is a heavy duty one with a gauge of at least 14.
Heating shortening and oil in the kitchen also poses a significant problem, since it is so flammable. Heat these slowly so that they do not burn and do not catch on fire and if you have to leave the room, turn them off or have someone watch them for you.
Space heaters are also a big problem during the winter time and like with deep fryers and electric skillets, do not use an extension cord with these. Do not place them near drapes or other fabric items and keep children away from them. Also try not to leave them on overnight while you are sleeping unless you absolutely have to and even then, make sure you take the necessary steps to keep flammable items away from them. Do not use these in the bedrooms of small children due to the amount of flammable stuffed animals, pillows, and blankets that are likely to be there.
The worst thing that you can do is let yourself become comfortable with these appliances and allow yourself to think that you know what you are doing and a fire cannot happen to you. Letting your guard down in this manner is what causes a large amount of house fires.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood and water damage cleanup and
water damage restoration> companies across the united states.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Hurricane, Flood, and Water Damage Tips
Mandatory evacuations during hurricanes and floods are not always fun to have to deal with and even during hurricane Katrina, some people did not wish to evacuate their homes and did not believe that they should be made to leave their property if they did not want to. If you cannot evacuate from your home for one reason or another or wish not to, then you really need to be prepared to stay there for a long period of time until the flood waters recede and the area is cleaned back up.
This means that you need to be stocked up with plenty of food and even more bottled water than you think you might need for a week or two’s time. Depending on the number of people in the home, you will want to have more food and water saved up. Having one gallon of water put up for each person for every day you expect to be staying in the home and even more than that, since you never know exactly when you will be able to leave.
If you need to leave the home for any reason and the waters have receded, something you need to be aware of is downed power lines. These are extremely dangerous and you can never tell if the downed line is electrified or not. Never attempt to cross one of these, not even in a vehicle.
Whatever water damage was inflicted on your home needs to be recorded with a camcorder, if you can get your hands on one. You can show this to your insurance claims adjuster so that he or she knows just how much damage was done to your home and can give you a good idea of how much compensation you can expect from your insurance company.
After you have made a video of the damage, drying out your home is the next thing that you need to start doing. Wet items should be taken outside and left to dry, unless more rain is expected.
Open the doors and windows all around the home so that air from outside can blow through out the structure and start drying things out naturally. A wet vacuum can be used to help extract some of the water from under hardwood floors, but a regular vacuum cleaner should never be used to do this due to the risk of electrocution.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Orlando water Damage companies.
This means that you need to be stocked up with plenty of food and even more bottled water than you think you might need for a week or two’s time. Depending on the number of people in the home, you will want to have more food and water saved up. Having one gallon of water put up for each person for every day you expect to be staying in the home and even more than that, since you never know exactly when you will be able to leave.
If you need to leave the home for any reason and the waters have receded, something you need to be aware of is downed power lines. These are extremely dangerous and you can never tell if the downed line is electrified or not. Never attempt to cross one of these, not even in a vehicle.
Whatever water damage was inflicted on your home needs to be recorded with a camcorder, if you can get your hands on one. You can show this to your insurance claims adjuster so that he or she knows just how much damage was done to your home and can give you a good idea of how much compensation you can expect from your insurance company.
After you have made a video of the damage, drying out your home is the next thing that you need to start doing. Wet items should be taken outside and left to dry, unless more rain is expected.
Open the doors and windows all around the home so that air from outside can blow through out the structure and start drying things out naturally. A wet vacuum can be used to help extract some of the water from under hardwood floors, but a regular vacuum cleaner should never be used to do this due to the risk of electrocution.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Orlando water Damage companies.
Prevention of Mold on Your Belongings
All kinds of things in your home can be affected by mold, but you can do quite a few things to protect them and restore them if you do a little research. A lot of molded items can be cleaned and saved, but there are a few that just have to be thrown away.
If mold gets on anything made of real leather it cannot be restored. Leather is a piece of porous organic material and mold decomposes items like this pretty quickly. It will discolor the leather and this discoloration cannot be repaired in 99 percent of cases.
Baby bottles come in strange shapes these days and are very often difficult to get completely dry. Water bottles and other beverage containers that we may have in our cabinets come in shapes just as strange and if you do not have a dishwasher with a dry cycle, it can be pretty hard to get these dry without a good amount of effort. The solution to this problem is to place these bottles in the freezer until you are ready to use them again. This prevents mold from growing on it, since mold does not grow in freezing temperatures.
Something else that causes mold to grow on your belongings, especially clothes, is the simple act of throwing wet clothing on the floor or into the back of the closet and forgetting about them. Most people do not wash wet clothes immediately; we tend to just throw them on the floor and then throw dry clothes on top of them. This usually causes the dry clothes to become moldy if we leave them there more than a day or two. Not only does it cause the clothes on top of them to become moldy, but if the wet items were thrown directly onto carpet, the carpet can become just as moldy. Once carpet is molded, it usually needs to be taken up and replaced, but the padding underneath always needs to be removed because it cannot be cleaned.
If you have a lot of clothes in your closet, maybe you need to make sure that you do not pack them into the closet so tight that the air cannot circulate. The clothes insulate each other and create warmth in the closet where mold can start growing after just a few days. Some closets come with vents installed to prevent this problem, but if yours does not, you should probably find another way to store your clothes or get rid of the ones that you do not use.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York flood water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
If mold gets on anything made of real leather it cannot be restored. Leather is a piece of porous organic material and mold decomposes items like this pretty quickly. It will discolor the leather and this discoloration cannot be repaired in 99 percent of cases.
Baby bottles come in strange shapes these days and are very often difficult to get completely dry. Water bottles and other beverage containers that we may have in our cabinets come in shapes just as strange and if you do not have a dishwasher with a dry cycle, it can be pretty hard to get these dry without a good amount of effort. The solution to this problem is to place these bottles in the freezer until you are ready to use them again. This prevents mold from growing on it, since mold does not grow in freezing temperatures.
Something else that causes mold to grow on your belongings, especially clothes, is the simple act of throwing wet clothing on the floor or into the back of the closet and forgetting about them. Most people do not wash wet clothes immediately; we tend to just throw them on the floor and then throw dry clothes on top of them. This usually causes the dry clothes to become moldy if we leave them there more than a day or two. Not only does it cause the clothes on top of them to become moldy, but if the wet items were thrown directly onto carpet, the carpet can become just as moldy. Once carpet is molded, it usually needs to be taken up and replaced, but the padding underneath always needs to be removed because it cannot be cleaned.
If you have a lot of clothes in your closet, maybe you need to make sure that you do not pack them into the closet so tight that the air cannot circulate. The clothes insulate each other and create warmth in the closet where mold can start growing after just a few days. Some closets come with vents installed to prevent this problem, but if yours does not, you should probably find another way to store your clothes or get rid of the ones that you do not use.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York flood water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
Refrigerator Cleanliness and Mold
Keeping a healthy and happy home is hard enough without having to deal with mold in your home and around your food. Most of us have enough problems with our kids and spouses eating healthy and having healthy lifestyles without having to worry about the mold that grows in our refrigerators. We are typically too busy to think about cleaning out our refrigerators most of the time, but this really needs to be done at least once every few months to discourage mold and mildew from residing in one of the most important appliances that we own.
Make sure that you know what things in your refrigerator need to be replaced. This includes items that are outdated or are obviously contaminated with mold. Depending on the item, it may or may not be able to be saved after mold starts to grow on it. In fact, most items in the refrigerator cannot be saved after mold begins to grow. This is usually because most items in our refrigerators are very moist and porous, which allows the mold to infect the entire container of food.
Very moist items are things like mayonnaise, sour cream, jellies, jams, and anything else that you can scoop out with a spoon. Unfortunately, not only moist items are affected heavily by mold. Porous items (items that are not very dense) are also heavily affected, such as meats and dairy products, such as individually sliced cheese or shredded cheese.
Any eggs in the refrigerator that are cracked before we intend to use them should be thrown away, since the shell is what protects the inside of the egg from bacteria.
Fruits and vegetables need to be checked for mold regularly and anything that has mold on it should be thrown away immediately before it has a chance to infect everything else around it. Clean out your fruit and vegetable drawers as often as you need to in order to keep the free of decaying matter like stray lettuce scraps.
Actually cleaning out the refrigerator is a time consuming task and can take a few hours. Begin by taking everything out of the refrigerator and setting it aside. Remove everything in the refrigerator that can be removed, such as shelves, drawers, and racks. Wash these in the sink with warm, soapy water if you can fit them there and allow them to dry. Wash every surface that cannot be removed and rinse it thoroughly. Replace all the items from the sink and go through all the food you took out to clear out the outdated items. Wash the bottoms of jars that have become sticky before putting them back.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New Jersey mold damage restoration and other states and cities such as
Connecticut mold remediation companies across the united states.
Make sure that you know what things in your refrigerator need to be replaced. This includes items that are outdated or are obviously contaminated with mold. Depending on the item, it may or may not be able to be saved after mold starts to grow on it. In fact, most items in the refrigerator cannot be saved after mold begins to grow. This is usually because most items in our refrigerators are very moist and porous, which allows the mold to infect the entire container of food.
Very moist items are things like mayonnaise, sour cream, jellies, jams, and anything else that you can scoop out with a spoon. Unfortunately, not only moist items are affected heavily by mold. Porous items (items that are not very dense) are also heavily affected, such as meats and dairy products, such as individually sliced cheese or shredded cheese.
Any eggs in the refrigerator that are cracked before we intend to use them should be thrown away, since the shell is what protects the inside of the egg from bacteria.
Fruits and vegetables need to be checked for mold regularly and anything that has mold on it should be thrown away immediately before it has a chance to infect everything else around it. Clean out your fruit and vegetable drawers as often as you need to in order to keep the free of decaying matter like stray lettuce scraps.
Actually cleaning out the refrigerator is a time consuming task and can take a few hours. Begin by taking everything out of the refrigerator and setting it aside. Remove everything in the refrigerator that can be removed, such as shelves, drawers, and racks. Wash these in the sink with warm, soapy water if you can fit them there and allow them to dry. Wash every surface that cannot be removed and rinse it thoroughly. Replace all the items from the sink and go through all the food you took out to clear out the outdated items. Wash the bottoms of jars that have become sticky before putting them back.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New Jersey mold damage restoration and other states and cities such as
Connecticut mold remediation companies across the united states.
Taking Care of Water Damaged Documents
After you find that it is safe to return to your home after a hurricane or a flood, one of the first things you are going to want to do is find all the legal papers and other important paper items in your home that you need to salvage. This can include all kinds of things that might be valuable to you, such as an only copy of a writer’s manuscript or anything else that may hold monetary or sentimental value.
As soon as you get back to the home, you need to be careful about the electrical hazards that may exist since there is probably still standing water somewhere in the home. The carpet is probably soaked and hardwood floors are likely to be, as well, so you need to make sure that the electricity to your home is completely off before you re-enter. After you do that, find whatever documents you need to find and lift them very carefully out of any water they may be in. The documents that are the highest priority to you should be removed and taken care of first. Put them onto a flat surface of some kind for drying and hope that you got to them before the mold did. As long as you remove your papers from water within 48 hours, they should be safe from mold contamination. Once mold starts to grow on papers like these, they usually cannot be saved.
The standing water in the house needs to be removed as soon as possible and in different seasons, the humidity needs to be adjusted a certain way. In the winter, the heat should be turned off to reduce indoor humidity and in the summer the air conditioning needs to be turned down to around 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some documents that have been in the water for a long time will need to be freeze dried in order to save them. If you have some money on your hands, this is not usually a big problem. Purchasing some freezer paper and finding a strong cardboard box to put them in is the first step to this. Wrap your documents in the freezer paper to stop them from sticking together and put them in the box. One of the most important things is to try and keep like-sized items packed together. Books on books and single papers on single papers should work just fine. Label the outside of it with your contact information and a list of the contents.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and other states such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
As soon as you get back to the home, you need to be careful about the electrical hazards that may exist since there is probably still standing water somewhere in the home. The carpet is probably soaked and hardwood floors are likely to be, as well, so you need to make sure that the electricity to your home is completely off before you re-enter. After you do that, find whatever documents you need to find and lift them very carefully out of any water they may be in. The documents that are the highest priority to you should be removed and taken care of first. Put them onto a flat surface of some kind for drying and hope that you got to them before the mold did. As long as you remove your papers from water within 48 hours, they should be safe from mold contamination. Once mold starts to grow on papers like these, they usually cannot be saved.
The standing water in the house needs to be removed as soon as possible and in different seasons, the humidity needs to be adjusted a certain way. In the winter, the heat should be turned off to reduce indoor humidity and in the summer the air conditioning needs to be turned down to around 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some documents that have been in the water for a long time will need to be freeze dried in order to save them. If you have some money on your hands, this is not usually a big problem. Purchasing some freezer paper and finding a strong cardboard box to put them in is the first step to this. Wrap your documents in the freezer paper to stop them from sticking together and put them in the box. One of the most important things is to try and keep like-sized items packed together. Books on books and single papers on single papers should work just fine. Label the outside of it with your contact information and a list of the contents.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and other states such as
South Carolina mold remediation companies across the united states.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
