The cold Iowa winter months bring the increased possibility of house and structure fires, so Riverside Fire Chief Chad Smothers offers advice for how to prevent fires in the home. First, it’s important to stay alert to possible fire threats, such as overloaded outlets. If your house has a fireplace that’s used for heating, he reminds you to get it cleaned properly before you use it. Perhaps the most common cause of house fires is unattended candles. Smothers urges people to be mindful of burning candles and not let them burn overnight, as well as making sure they’re not near anything that could catch fire. Finally, he urges people to be careful when cooking, as it’s easy to start fires due to grease or oil, or leaving food unattended.

If a fire does break out in your home, Smothers says whether it’s big or small, to get out of the house immediately and call 911. With all the synthetic materials used in homes in this day and age, he says fires spread more rapidly than they have in the past. As such, he says it’s important to get out, stay out, and let the fire fighters do their job. Smothers adds that winter is typically when they see the majority of house and structure fires. He says this is mostly due to people heating their homes with unclean chimneys or being irresponsible with unorthodox heating methods.