Fire Damage from Your Clothes Dryer Can Affect Your Entire Amherst Residence

3/17/2022 (Permalink)

It is important to remove lint from the dryer vent after each use to prevent a fire from starting.

Rely on SERVPRO to Restore Your Home after Fire Damage

Pulling fresh, just-dried towels out of the dryer can fill the area with a fresh, pleasant scent. During the winter in Amherst, this chore can become one of the nicer ones just because of the warmth felt. However, just like the aroma can spread, lint from damp towels can accumulate and cause heat to build up to dangerous levels inside your ducts.

After pulling each load from your dryer you can prevent fire damage in Amherst, with the mundane task of removing the lint in the trap. When homeowners neglect this task, lint can eventually pass through and into the duct. Still damp, it often sticks to the interior of the duct, slowly building up. Continued use of your dryer and sporadic removal of lint from the trap can lead to a fire starting inside your ductwork.

Dryer fires can also affect the clothing inside the dryer in cases where heat cannot escape into the duct and out the exterior vent. Synthetic fibers produce toxic gases when they combust. When the basement holds the washer and dryer, fire can affect the floor of the ground-level story in your home. Finished basements, of course, sustain a great deal more property damage than unfinished basements might experience. The materials used to complete a basement often help spread the fire, which can weaken even more considerable areas of the ceiling above, and thus, the flooring above.

Because many homes do not contain functioning smoke detectors in the basement, or if they do, testing does not happen on a monthly schedule, a fire in this location can become quite large, even with the occupants at home. Just as home maintenance that takes place on a regular schedule helps prevent a lot of damages caused by a multitude of disasters, acting soon can help keep existing fire damage from worsening.

SERVPRO technicians hold IICRC certificates, including Fire and Smoke Restoration (FSRT). We continually maintain and check our tools and equipment to ensure they remain in working order. When a fire takes out your home's electric supply or only causes damage to the area we need to work in, we can supply our own to power our equipment.

After removing all charred and burned items from your basement, smoke odors can still permeate your entire home. This is because soot particles, as they disintegrate, become airborne and can enter your heating and cooling system and then spread throughout your home. Our Odor Control Technician (OCT) can help you address this predicament and make your home smell normal again.

SERVPRO of Hampshire County wants to help homeowners in our area, from Northampton to Ware, recover from fire damage. Ensuring your family lives in a safe home, free of the carcinogenic properties inherent in soot particles, is very important to us. Call us 24/7, 365 days a year, at (413) 324-1300, so we can help make your home "Like it never even happened." again.