Warning of winter fire dangers

Electrical failures result in about 450 callouts a year, with the monthly rate doubling during July and August. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

The Fire Service is warning people to be wary of the "winter perennials" which lead to a jump in fires each year - electrical overloading, drying clothes too close to heaters and carelessly disposing of fire embers.

The service is urging people not to overload their power sockets, to dry clothes at least 1m from a heater, clean their ovens and extractors regularly, and to carefully dispose of fire ashes.

Electrical failures result in about 450 callouts a year, with the monthly rate doubling during July and August. Each year firefighters are called to about 130 fires caused by overloading equipment; the monthly number of fires doubles in the winter months, attributed to high-wattage heaters and electrical blankets.

Sixty fires a month, almost all during winter, were caused by clothing or material left too close to heaters and another 60 fires a month started in ovens and their extractors.

Careless disposal of embers also led to around 80 callouts a year. Ashes can stay hot for up to five days after they are removed from a fire.

In Gisborne, three young women had a narrow escape after cleaning out their fireplace. They put the ashes into a cardboard box and on top of the fridge in the laundry.

The smouldering ashes caught fire, melted the fridge and set fire to the laundry walls before firefighters put the blaze out.