This week is National Fire Prevention Week. While the classic lessons (including fire extinguisher safety and “stop, drop, and roll”) immediately come to mind, there are also some hazards that are perhaps not as obvious. One example is the dryer vent — a sometimes forgotten risk for house fires if not maintained appropriately.
15,000 a year
Evan Hoeppner, the lead for dryer vent cleaning at Corner 2 Corner Cleaning & Restoration in Winkler, says that in Canada,15,000 house fires a year are started in dryer vents.
The first step in preventing a house fire of this type is to build a habitual practice.
“Every dryer has a lint trap on it. It'll say right on the dryer: ‘Clean out after every use,’” says Hoeppner. “That's the best way to do it.”
Critters and guests
Hoeppner says that another course of action to promote safety is to check the exhaust for the dryer on the exterior of the house.
“Make sure that those flaps are free and able to move while still covering the hole,” he says. “I’ve found things like nests [and] mice in there . . . . [Animals] love the warm air, and they love making nests out of the dryer lint.”
Hoeppner adds that when the temperatures begin to drop, mice especially like to hide in the space. He says that the presence of unwanted guests creates a lint blockage that could result in a fire.
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In addition to taking these measures on one’s own, Hoeppner recommends getting dryer vents cleaned professionally at regular intervals.
“We recommend every year for residential houses, [and] obviously for commercial buildings, [such as] hair salons, six months,” he says. “If you're never using a dryer [and] you prefer line drying, . . . it doesn’t need to be cleaned as often, but every year is our recommendation.”
A tried and true method
The cleaning process is a minimally invasive and efficient one.
"We use a big air compressor, basically, and then we have flexible hosing with a fancy head on it,” says Hoeppner. “We throw the hose in, it'll navigate through all the flex hosing and all the elbows, things like that, all the way up into your dryer, right up to your lint trap. Because it's such high pressure, as we pull it out, it's going to strip all that lint out, all those bird nests, mice, and it's going to shoot it all outside. All the mess stays outside, yet we're still able to go and clean all the way up to your dryer without wrecking any brittle flex hosing.”
Hoeppner says that through his tenure as dryer vent cleaning lead, he has uncovered some other interesting and unexpected items through the process.
“I've found socks, a bit of money, things like that. It really does make me scratch my head,” he says. “You have an entire lint trap, . . . so I do wonder how it gets into your dryer vent. If you are missing socks, then that's where you'll find them maybe.”
The details
Hoeppner says that a dryer vent cleaning can be scheduled with Corner 2 Corner Cleaning & Restoration through various channels. Its office number is 204-325-9791, and it also has a Facebook page and Instagram page.
The company also offers a variety of other services, including carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, fire and water restoration, janitorial cleaning services, and duct cleaning.
Hoeppner says that duct cleaning has a role in fire prevention as well.
“With some older houses, dust can build up in your furnaces,” he says. “If you're not cleaning them, you're going to have that dust build-up in there, and that can absolutely be a fire hazard.”
As fire prevention week continues, keep an eye on PembinaValleyOnline for more strategies to avoid fires.
~With files from Ty Hildebrand and Jayme Giesbrecht~