Winter Fire Safety Tips

EAST TEXAS — The winter fire season arrived just over a week ago with the first space heater house fire in Longview. No one was injured, but the house on Gum Street was razed. Four mornings later, on Tuesday, the county had its first space heater fire, again without injury. The fire marshals for Longview and Gregg County hope those two house fires are the only ones of the cold-weather months. But history tells them there will be more, too many more.

“Last year, we had a fatality because a space heater was too close to a couch in a travel trailer,” Longview Marshal Johnny Zackary said. Another woman died late last winter in a cooking fire, he added. “This year, we’ve already had a family displaced in the Gum Street fire,” Zackary said. That blaze, blamed on an electric space heater that fell over, one of three left on in the house, occurred while a mother and daughter attended the Lobo football game Oct. 28.

Fire crews across the country go like gangbusters this time of year. The culprit all too often is a resident who created a dangerous situation in response to dropping temperatures, Zackary and Gregg County Fire Marshal David Kidder said. “You’ll encounter multiple heaters plugged in in one room, especially in older construction,” Kidder said. “You’ll have one circuit for that room and sometimes for that house. You’re pulling all these amps through that system. You get fires in the wall.”

Gas space heaters have their own, peculiar threat — actual flames, which like to leap to draperies and other handy combustibles, including clothes often intentionally laid nearby to dry.

Colder weather also brings the holidays, which bring opportunities for miscues with Christmas lighting. That includes electric lights and holiday candles, Zackary said. Both fire marshals recommended using so-called sensory candles, electric decorations with tiny bulbs and scents, as an alternative to flame candles.