Garage Fire Safety Tips

Your garage likely serves multiple purposes, from safe vehicle storage to excess storage space to home improvement hobby areas. It’s also likely used for housing anything from seasonal decor to recreational equipment, paints, cleaning agents, vehicle fluids, and large appliances like hot water heaters or furnaces.

With so many items present in your home’s garage, this space is highly susceptible to unexpected fires. The key to preventing garage fires is to establish safety routines, properly store potentially hazardous items and stock essential safety equipment.

Importance of Garage Fire Safety

If you’ve never experienced a fire that began in the garage, why would you need to start performing garage fire safety tasks now? Like any home fire, a garage fire can start unexpectantly at any moment. Currently, there are 6,600 garage fires reported every year in the U.S. resulting in nearly $457 million in property damages, 30 deaths and 400 personal injuries. Unlike other fires that can begin throughout your home, a garage fire is typically more destructive and can spread faster.

Fire Safety Tips

Keeping your garage organized and well-maintained are crucial steps to preventing garage fires. By following these garage fire safety tips, you can ensure long-lasting garage fire prevention:

• Avoid storing highly flammable items in the garage, such as gas cans, propane tanks, paints and varnishes. Keep these items in a shed, if possible, or store them in your garage away from sources of heat, like space heaters, furnaces and boilers.
• Plug in one appliance — like refrigerators, furnaces and hot water heaters — per outlet and avoid using extension cords to power these items. This step can prevent your outlets from overheating and eventually starting a fire, which is one of the most common ways fires begin in garages.
• Inspect your garage and upgrade the structure to proper fire safety codes, including fire-rated doors and Type X gypsum board installed on ceilings and house-adjacent walls.
• Keep garage doors, appliances, lights and outlets maintained.
• Install a functional heat alarm in the garage that meets the following requirements — battery backup capabilities, interconnectivity to your home’s smoke alarms and rated for temperatures between 175 and 250 F.

Establishing safe daily routines and practices can also help you avoid garage fires. For example, completely seal paint, stains, oils and solvents and store them in a separate location, remove any pieces of wood or sawdust from the garage, and properly discard oily rags or pieces of cloth.

Let Oregon City Garage Door Help You Prevent Fires

While fires are a frightening possibility, by keeping your garage maintained and updating your space to include the latest safety features, you can easily prevent them. If you’re unsure about the quality of your garage or need door maintenance, call the experts at Oregon City Garage Door to inspect your door and make fire safety recommendations. We have over 25 years of garage door experience throughout Portland and its surrounding communities.

Schedule garage door services today by calling us at 503-632-3070 or completing our online service request form.