When was the last time you cleaned your dryer, and not just the lint catch? This appliance is one of the leading causes of house fires.
When dryers catch fire, the spark and first flames are usually hidden within the machine. On Saturday, San Luis Obispo firefighters demonstrated just how hidden the beginnings of this fire can be.
Meghan Schuler-Jones is a San Luis Obispo resident who attended the demonstration.
“It's actually kind of scary,” Schuler-Jones said. “But also, again, just it's good to have that heads up and we'll make sure that we check out our dryer so that we're safe.”
Dryer fires are one of the top 5 causes for house fires in the United States. Even if a dryer catch is cleaned out, lint can fall farther into the machine, near a highly flammable part of the dryer.
Gary Kibbe is the owner of SLO Dryer Vent Cleaning. His business specializes in cleaning vents to prevent dryer fires.
“What you don't know is that the lint screen only catches 50% of the lint, so the rest accumulates in the dryer and in the vent,” Kibbe said. “Then eventually, if you go long enough, you will get a fire like this dryer.”
SLO Dryer Vent Cleaning partnered with the San Luis Obispo Fire Department for this year’s Fire Prevention Week to set a dryer on fire. Dozens of parents and children watched the demonstration to understand what to do if they see smoke, including four-year-old Nathan Batey.
“You shut the door,” Batey said. “And then you would tell a parent or mom.”
San Luis Obispo Fire Chief Todd Tuggle said dryer fires aren’t uncommon in the community. He said bringing awareness to this risk and teaching neighbors how to prevent these fires is an important part of the job.
“We get a handful of those a year,” Tuggle said. “I think within this year, I don't have the exact stats, but about two to three a year that we get, and they can be quite damaging and devastating to a homeowner or an occupant of a home.”
