Common Causes of House Fires

When it comes to risks a homeowner constantly faces, house fires are up there towards the top of the list. House fires have a number of different causes, and it’s surprising to a lot of homeowners just how many risks they have in their own home. This isn’t to say you should stop using what you have in your home, especially since so many of these potential causes also make our lives so much easier while carrying this minimal risk. But rather, it’s important to make sure as a homeowner you’re prepared for what might happen in a certain situation and you’re ready to combat it. Here are just a few of the potential causes for house fires.

• Cooking equipment: ovens, microwaves, stoves, ranges, and even things like food processors, blenders, and coffee makers could potentially have an electrical short, leading to sparks and a kitchen fire
• Grease: Cooking often involves the use of oils or greases, most of which are highly flammable and could ignite with nothing more than a single spark.
• Smoking: Many people choose to enjoy a cigarette in their bedrooms or while having breakfast in the dining room. The red-hot embers and ashes could spark a fire if they accidentally catch a draft and blow into something easily flammable.
• Faulty wiring: How old is your home? If it’s more than 20 or 30 years old, odds are your wiring is heavily outdated. This means you could be at a huge risk of a potential wiring fault leading to a short, huge sparks, and catastrophic fires starting in your walls.
• Candles: They may be small but a lit candle is an open flame and an open flame coming on contact with something like a piece of paper or the fabric from a curtain can suddenly cause a fire that leads to devastating damage.
• Heating systems: The hot air that comes out of your central heating system could potentially cause something extremely flammable to get too hot and ignite.
• Dryer lint: Do you clean the lint screen before each load of laundry? If not, you probably should start. The heating elements in a dryer combined with the dry tinder box that is a lint screen could result in your dryer quickly catching fire.
• Lighting: Similar to your electric system, an outdated lighting system can lead to overheats, shorts, and sparks, each of which can cause a fire. These fires are particularly common around the holidays.

If you experience a house fire, you may need legal assistance with your claim. If your insurance company mistreats you or grossly under-estimates your claim in an attempt to save money, you should speak with a skilled Miami insurance attorney from The Morgan Law Group to make sure you receive the settlement you deserve.

Contact The Morgan Law Group today by dialing (844) 818-0774 to schedule a free consultation!