As the winter progresses, local firefighters encourage people to use common sense to avoid causing fires. Riverside Fire Chief Chad Smothers says many house fires during the winter months are caused by human error, and most can be avoided. He explains, “A lot of the fires we see aren’t necessarily related to causes from winter. A lot of stuff is cooking, or overloaded electrical outlets, discarded smoking materials, things like that. As far as with the winter, we encourage people, if they do have fireplaces, to keep those clean. If they’re using them, to keep things away from them that could catch fire if something fell out of the fireplace itself. So just keep that area cleaned up, in and around it. And obviously just making sure your heating system in your house is working properly, and things like that.”

Smothers expects fire calls to stay steady over the remaining winter months, as people find creative but unsafe ways to heat their houses. He says some fires aren’t preventable or predictable, but many can be avoided by using good judgement. One way to make sure you’re protected should a house fire break out is to make sure you have working smoke detectors. Washington County has had two fatal fires in the last two months.