Common Home Fire Hazards – Cigarette and Dryer Vents

Now you’re probably wondering, how can a dryer vent become a common home fire hazard? Most people can see how cigarettes can start a fire, especially if someone fell asleep and was smoking in bed, but dryer vents, come on.

Let’s start with cigarettes, a long time ago, cigarettes were more dangerous than they are today. Today, most cigarettes are made to go out quickly if not smoked. This has drastically decreased deaths and fire damage caused by smoking in your home.

However, cigarettes should always be extinguished in an ashtray and never thrown away in a regular trash can filled with paper and other flammable debris. This is still a problem today and with a little common sense and a lot of education, this problem seems to be disappearing, over the years. It’s not a bad idea to put out your finished cigarette in a full bottle of water. That’s good advice, think about it if you’re a smoker.

Now what everyone has been waiting for, how can a dryer vent become a common home fire hazard? Well, it’s story time. Here’s something that actually happened at my house while I was at work.

We were taking care of a foster child who was nine years old and he saved our house. The rest of the family was playing in the back bedroom, while the washer and dryer were running. I had recently done some modifications or, you could call it, remodeling in my garage and I never got around to fixing the dryer vent properly. In other words, it wasn’t venting to the outside of the house like it should have been.

The problem with this was that the dryer vent was slowly starting to build up behind the dryer. You may find it hard to believe, but the lint in this dryer caught fire while the hot air was blowing directly from the back of the dryer and could have burned the entire house down, except for the kid who smelled the smoke and notified someone who put out the fire.

Since then I have learned my lessons and that is why I am sharing my story with you, so that it doesn’t happen to anyone reading this article. There’s a reason for the pipes and duct work in your home, so make sure they’re connected properly and cleaned regularly.