VIDEO: What You Need To Know Before Turning On Your Heater

AMORY, Miss. (WCBI)- Cooler temperatures may have you wanting to turn on that heater. But  there are some very important precautions you need to take prior to bumping up the temperature.

Amory Fire Chief Zackary McGonagill, says the most common call they receive this time of year is heater fires.

“A lot of people, it’s not that they don’t clean the heaters its that there’s different preparations you need to go through, such as a propane heater or a butane or a natural gas heater. If you’ll notice a little flame inside the heater there, it supposed to burn blue, if they’re burning orange it’s prolly got some dust or lint built up in there so it’s a good thing to call the gas company have somebody come out and blow it out,” says McGonagill.

The same goes for the electric heater.

“People use extension chords for these heaters. An appliance like that is supposed to be plugged directly into the socket itself that way it doesn’t create that heat for the extension chord,” says McGonagill.

A good piece of advice to keep in mind is:

“Anything that produces any kind of heat we like thirty six inches of clearance all the way around them,” says McGonagill.

McGonagill also says now is the perfect time of year to be checking your smoke alarms.

“The best time to check your smoke alarm batteries is when you do the time change, so if you haven’t done that now is a good time to go ahead and check your smoke alarm,” says McGonagill.

He adds families should put together an action plan just in case a fire does break out..

“Practice with the people that live inside your house and what to do actually during the time of the fire, you know you want to have a safe haven outside. Who calls 9-1-1 and once you’re outside stay outside,” says McGonagill.

McGonagill says most fatalities occur when someone returns to the burning building.

“A lot of times we respond back to fires and we respond back to find that somebody has went back in to get something that means something to them. The best thing to do is to just once you’re outside on the safety side of things just to get there and let us do our job to put the fire out and then we’ll go back in to get your things,” says McGonagill.