Residential fire callouts in New Zealand rise noticeably through the colder months, and the reasons are entirely predictable. Heaters come out of cupboards. Wood burners get lit by people who last lit one in September. Clothes get dried indoors on anything warm. Electrical circuits carry loads they do not see for the other eight months of the year.
Winter is also when houses are sealed up, which means smoke that would once have drifted out an open window now stays in the room. Here is what actually causes the seasonal spike and what to do about it.
Heaters and the one metre rule
Portable heaters are involved in a significant share of winter house fires, and the mechanism is almost always contact or proximity. Something combustible ends up too close: a curtain, a couch arm, a pile of washing, a towel, a child's toy.
The rule is a clear metre in every direction, including above. Nothing drying on a heater, ever, no matter how briefly. Heaters off before bed and off before leaving the house. Free standing heaters on a hard flat surface, not carpet or a rug that can bunch and tip them.
Oil column heaters feel safe because the surface is cooler, and they are still a fire risk when a duvet or towel ends up on top of one. The rule does not change.
Drying clothes indoors
In a New Zealand winter this is unavoidable, and it is also one of the most common contributing factors in seasonal fires. Clothes horses migrate towards heat sources because that is where things dry faster, and a garment that slips off onto a heater is enough.
Keep the airer well clear of any heat source. If you are using a dehumidifier in a closed room, that is a considerably safer arrangement than a heater and a rack.
Dryers and lint
Dryer use spikes in winter and dryer fires follow. Lint is highly combustible and a clogged filter forces the element to run hotter for longer. Clean the filter every load, not every month, and check the rear vent and any ducting for build up at the start of the season.
A laundry should have a heat alarm rather than a smoke unit, since steam and lint dust will nuisance trigger a smoke sensor. Heat alarms respond to rapid temperature rise, so they ignore steam and react quickly to an actual fire.
Wood burners and open fires
Chimney and flue fires are a winter speciality. Creosote accumulates through the season and ignites at high flue temperatures, and the fire then travels inside the flue where you cannot see it.
Get the flue swept annually, ideally before the first fire of the year. Burn dry seasoned wood, since wet wood produces far more creosote. Use a fire screen for open fires, because a single spitting ember on a rug is enough. Ash goes into a metal bucket and outside, not into a plastic bin in the garage, and it stays there for several days because ash retains heat far longer than people expect.
Keep a clear zone around the appliance and never dry kindling or washing on the hearth.
Electrical load
Winter is when multiboxes get pressed into service. A heater, an electric blanket, a dehumidifier and a dryer all drawing at once through circuits and extension leads that spend summer idle.
- Heaters plug directly into a wall socket, never into an extension lead or multibox. This is the single most important electrical rule of the season.
- Do not daisy chain multiboxes, and do not run leads under rugs or behind furniture where heat cannot escape and damage goes unnoticed.
- Electric blankets over ten years old should be replaced, and never used with a hot water bottle.
- Any socket, plug or lead that is warm to the touch, discoloured or smells faintly of burning needs an electrician, not a wait and see.
Detection matters more when the house is sealed
Closed windows and doors mean smoke concentrates rather than dispersing, and bedroom doors closed against the cold mean a hallway alarm is muffled at exactly the time of year you need it most.
Two changes make the biggest difference. Detection inside sleeping rooms rather than only in the hallway, so a closed door does not sit between the sounder and the sleeper. And interconnection, so a fire starting at the wood burner or in the laundry sounds every alarm in the house at once rather than waiting for smoke to travel upstairs.
The pre-winter check
Do this once, in May, and it covers the season.
Read the manufacture date on the back of every alarm and replace anything ten years old or undated, because sensing chambers lose accuracy with age regardless of whether the test button beeps. Vacuum the vents on each unit. Test every alarm. Book the flue sweep. Clean the dryer filter and vent. Check every extension lead and multibox for damage and overload. Confirm there is a heat alarm in the kitchen and laundry rather than a smoke unit.
What to fit if you are replacing
Photoelectric sensing detects slow smouldering fires, which is what a heater against a curtain or a smouldering couch produces, considerably earlier than older ionisation technology. Sealed ten year lithium batteries remove the annual change and the winter chirping. Interconnection, wireless if the house is not wired for it, links the whole house into one system.
On Point Distribution supplies CAVIUS, Watchman and SmartSense through more than 700 retailers and electrical wholesalers across New Zealand, so comparing smoke alarms and matching heat alarms across a specialist range before the season starts is straightforward.
Half an hour
The winter spike is not bad luck. It is heaters, wet washing, lint, creosote and overloaded leads, all arriving in the same eight weeks. Spend half an hour in May and most of it goes away.