There are few things scarier to a homeowner’s imagination than the thought of a fire. Appliances, which we buy to make our lives easier, can actually endanger our lives in the absence of proper care, since they can cause fires. Any electric appliance can ignite if damaged, but you’d be surprised by how many of them are in your kitchen. An exhaustive list, courtesy of Realtor.com:

  • Refrigerator
  • Oven
  • Stove
  • Dishwasher
  • Garbage disposal
  • Microwave oven
  • Exhaust hood
  • Coffee pot/coffee maker
  • Toaster and toaster oven
  • Hot plate
  • Steamer
  • Slow cooker
  • Pressure cooker
  • Waffle iron
  • Blender
  • Can opener
  • Clothes washer
  • Clothes dryer
  • Iron
  • Air conditioner
  • Space heater
  • Dehumidifier
  • Box fan/oscillating fan
  • Ceiling fan

Not surprisingly, stove fires account for the most home damage in the United States. These are also one of the most preventable kinds of fires. About forty percent of all home fires originate from a cooking surface, says the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and one-third of these are caused by unattended cooking. Fire stations around the United States tend to just under five hundred cooking fires a day. Scary, right?

Some of the things that cause fires:

Product defects:

  • No safety precautions in place
  • Poor manufacturing quality
  • Bad wiring causing overheating
  • Insufficient home insulation
  • Lousy components

User error:

  • Not heeding the manufacturer’s instructions 
  • Using a damaged or worn product long after it has outlived its safe lifespan
  • Failure to keep flammable materials, clutter, and debris away from heat sources
  • Not cleaning and maintaining appliances
  • Buying products that don’t meet U.S. safety standards because they were made in a foreign country and are poorly-made, cheap, and dangerous
  • Extension cords overheating because they are under rugs, or are either too long or too short

With care, you can prevent most appliance fires. Don’t become a victim! Practice due diligence.

What you can do to prevent appliance fires:

  • Replace worn power cords.Switches can also become damaged over time. If appliances become used-up, replace them promptly.
  • Read the owner’s manuals. Yes, all of them. Use products only as intended. 
  • Don’t ever operate appliances unattended. That is inclusive of the obvious ones like ranges or ovens, but also includes dishwashers, clothes washers, dryers, slow cookers, dehumidifiers, and space heaters. It may be convenient to wash your clothes or keep dinner cooking while you are at work, but it’s just not safe. 
  • Keep flammable objects clear of hot surfaces. That means curtains, napkins, cookbooks, and anything else made of paper. 
  • Keep appliances clean. You need not be Martha Stewart, but you should make sure that grease and other debris are cleared off your stovetop. Every so often, vacuum under and behind refrigerators and ovens, as well as under and behind clothes washers and dryers. 
  • Unplug small appliances when not in use.
  • Make sure that a working smoke alarm is installed on each level of your home and in every bedroom. Test them regularly.