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Dryer vents, extension cords and space heaters: the three fire starters in most homes

Most house fires are not electrical faults inside the walls. They start with three ordinary things that get used wrong. Here is what wrong looks like.

August 28, 2026 · 3 min readSafety

Wildfire smoke and the house: keeping the air inside clean

Smoke from a fire hundreds of miles away now reaches most of the country some summer weeks. How to seal up, filter and clear the air inside, and what the numbers on a filter mean.

August 4, 2026 · 3 min readSafety

Grills, fire pits and the deck: outdoor fire without the fire department

Grills start thousands of home fires a year, most of them in July, and most of them on the deck or against the siding. The distances, the propane check, the ashes and the fire pit rules.

July 25, 2026 · 3 min readSafety

Summer power outages: the generator, the food and the sump

Summer storms take the power out more often than winter ones now, and the two things that go wrong are a generator run in the wrong place and a basement that floods while the pump sits idle. The rules for both.

July 1, 2026 · 3 min readSafety

The electrical panel: what to look for, and when to replace it

The gray box in the basement is the one part of the house that can start a fire without anyone touching it. The brands with a history, the signs of trouble, and what an upgrade involves.

April 18, 2026 · 3 min readSafety

Carbon monoxide: the alarm every home needs, and where it goes

You cannot see it or smell it, and it comes from the furnace, the water heater, the car and the generator. What an alarm costs, where to mount it and what to do when it sounds.

February 22, 2026 · 2 min readSafety

Holiday lights without a call to the fire department

December is the month for electrical fires and ladder falls. Which lights and cords are safe outdoors, how much a circuit can carry, and the tree rules that matter.

January 6, 2026 · 3 min read

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