AUSTIN, Texas — As more home fires are sparking this winter season, firefighters are reminding people that one appliance in their home could be a fire hazard without proper maintenance: your dryer.
According to the most recent report released by the National Fire Protection Association, from 2014 to 2018, fire departments across the U.S. responded to about 13,820 home fires per year. About a third of those fires were caused by failure to clean the dryer vents.
“In a matter of minutes, you can go from a small fire to an inferno,” said the executive director of the Texas Fire Protection Association, Jeff Shapiro.
But preventing these fires is a simple task Shapiro says. He recommends first starting by cleaning out the dryer filter before every use. The next step is to clean out the pipe connecting the dryer to the wall with a brush.
“When lint starts to accumulate in the vent pipe, the airflow gets restricted,” Shapiro said. “Eventually you’ll get lint buildup all the way back to the heating element and that’s what sparks the fire.”
After cleaning the vent pipe that connects indoors, Shapiro also recommends clearing out the duct facing the outside of the house so nothing accumulates at the cap.
Shapiro recommends doing this cleaning of the inside and outside vent about once or twice per year. He also recommends replacing any plastic hoses with metallic ones, so that in the event of a fire, it does not melt the hose and spread quickly to the laundry room and the rest of the house.
It’s also important to make sure the dryer hose is installed properly and not getting crushed behind the dryer because that can restrict the airflow.
“Dryers work really well when you move a lot of heated air through them and out the end of the vent pipe,” Shapiro said.
A tell-tale sign something may be wrong with your dryer is if the dryer is taking longer to dry close or not drying them properly.
The National Fire Protection Association’s 2020 study also found that the home dryer fires from 2014-2018 caused about seven deaths per year, 344 injuries and $233 million in direct property damage each year.