The City of Kenai Fire Department has been busy with calls this winter but less for residence fires.
Chief Jeff Tucker said they had three calls in the last three or four weeks, most recently an unoccupied residence on Iowa Street that yielded significant damage.
Chief Tucker: “Most of the time in the winter time fire departments in Alaska see a lot of structure fires related to heating, is the leading cause of it whether it’s the malfunction of the heating system or improper installation of the heating systems its something to do with heating systems. So luckily for us the temperatures have reduced the calls for that, the City of Kenai itself has been busy for calls in general so we haven’t seen a reduction in overall number of calls but structure fires seems to be a little bit down.”
Fire Marshal Tommy Carver said there should always be a perimeter around portable heaters.
Carver: “Anytime we’re using portable heaters we’d like to see a minimum of 36 inches, if people can avoid the use of portable heaters we really prefer that but when they are used we need to make sure we keep combustibles away from them at least three feet.”
It is also important to not obstruct heating ducts, cold-air returns, or any heat source and keep furniture away from baseboard heaters.