The kitchen is the heart of the home where meals are lovingly prepared. But, did you know that the kitchen is also the most likely place that home fires begin? Read on to learn how to protect your family from the dangers associated with kitchen fires.
How to Protect Your Home from Kitchen Fires
Most common causes of kitchen fires
The most common causes of kitchen fires are frying food and leaving cooking food unattended. Frying is a particularly dangerous way to cook because oil is highly flammable, and heating the oil too much or having splattering oil will quickly cause a kitchen fire. Be aware that walking away from any cooking food is dangerous even if you think you will be gone for a short amount of time.
Take preventative actions
Prevent fires by keeping flammable items like oven mitts, dish towels, and utensils away from the stove-top, and keep at least one small fire extinguisher in your home and make sure it is accessible in the kitchen.
Also make sure that your cooking tools are appropriate for what you are trying to prepare. This includes making sure your stove-top is in good working order as well as your pots and pans being the correct size. You may want to consider investing in an outdoor fryer if you do a lot of frying.
Stop a fire in progress
If you notice that your oil starts smoking, immediately turn your cooking temperature down. Smoking oil is a sign that it is too hot and will catch on fire soon. The only way to put out a grease fire is to smother it, so keep a lid near your cooking area. If you can’t put it out, shut the door and get everyone out of the house.
Damage to your home
Depending on how large the fire was, you may see significant damage to your kitchen. Besides the obvious damage to stove top and melted appliances there may also be unseen damage to gas lines and electrical lines. It is always best to call the fire department to make sure that your home is safe before you re-enter after a fire.
Another big issue with kitchen fires is the fumes and soot caused by burning plastic and other items. You will need to wash down your walls, clean out drawers and cabinets, and be sure to change your air filter. Soot from the kitchen fire will travel to your entire home through your air ducts.
That's the luckier side of things. Kitchen fires can easily become full-fledged house fires, and you could end up without a home. Unless put out extremely quickly, a fire will likely require the assistance of either an electrician, a disaster specialist or both to get the home back to safe and comfortable conditions.
There are many kinds of molds that can grow in a home, and all kinds need to be removed. You can clean some mold infestations yourself, but before you attempt to clean it up, you should determine what kind of mold you have. Some are too dangerous for an unskilled person to tackle.
Understanding and Identifying Different Types of Mold In Your Home
Molds can range from ones that are likely to cause allergies, including asthma attacks, to ones that can cause illness, and to ones that are so toxic they can cause life-threatening and fatal health conditions.
Some Types of Molds That Can Grow In Your Home
Acremonium
Acremonium grows predominantly inside manmade household systems and appliances such as air conditioning units and humidifiers, though it can be in places like carpet and on wallpaper. It is light-colored and can either be a contained, moist mold or a powdery form.If you encounter this type of mold, do not attempt to clean it yourself. It causes allergies in most but can cause several serious conditions in others.
Alternaria
Alternaria is one of the most common molds you’ll likely find in your home. It likes moist environments in kitchens and bathrooms, such as showers, bathtubs, around toilets, and under and around sinks and can grow with just humidity. Alternaria is a soft mold that is either brown or dark green with little hair-like structures. This type of mold spreads really fast in your home as it releases a lot of spores into the air, so it’s important to tackle it quickly and effectively.Thankfully, Alternaria is one of the less serious types of mold, causing allergic reactions, but its rapid growth and high spore count make it highly allergenic.
Aureobasidium
Aureobasidium grows under wallpaper, on wood furniture, and on window sills and it typically comes in pink, black, or brown. It can cause eye, skin, and nail infections and one should use gloves when cleaning it.
Chaetomium
Chaetomium grows where there is water damage. It is a soft, texture-y mold that starts out light colored and gradually turns darker, becoming black over time. It also has a musty smell to it.It’s not usually too dangerous, causing skin and nail infections, but it can sometimes cause illness in people with compromised immune systems. Cleaning Chaetomium will only be effective if you fix the source of the water damage. Because it grows as a result of water damage, it often coexists with Stachybotrys.
Stachybotrys
Stachybotrys, or “black mold”, is both allergenic and highly toxic. Dark green or black and usually slimy, but if the area becomes dry, the mold can become powdery. It likes damp wood, paper, and other similar materials. It can cause mild allergic symptoms, serious mental and physical symptoms, and neurological symptoms. Even if exposure to black mold is not fatal, it can cause permanent damage. The longer you are exposed to it, the more dangerous it is.
Ulocladium
Ulocladium often springs up in homes with severe water damage. It’s dark and velvety, and prefers the typical mold-loving areas like showers and basements, but it can grow just about anywhere there is sufficient water. It’s not too dangerous itself, causing allergies and some more serious symptoms in people with compromised immune systems, but stachybotrys often grows in conjunction with ulocladium, so extreme care should still be taken.
Advice For Removing Molds
There are many more kinds of molds, though these are some of the most common and most concerning of household molds. Do-it-yourselfers can clean some mold infestations, ones that are not toxic and have not damaged a sizable amount of material, but many others cannot. If you cannot guarantee that you have one of the more harmless molds in your home, or simply don’t want to risk it, have an inspection completed and call a mold removal specialist.
It is hard to argue with the aesthetic appeal of ivy covered homes. When the conditions are right, ivy makes a beautiful accent to your structure, but ivy growing on structures that are not strong enough to support them or sturdy enough to resist their root system can be very troublesome. In such a bad situation, it takes considerable effort to rid ivy from the area before restoration of damaged surfaces can even begin. So it is important to know where ivy growth is safe and unsafe to grow on your home.
How Ivy May Be Damaging Your Home
Good Ivy Locations
If you have a newer brick home you have a perfect environment for growing good healthy ivy. Ivy grows up the wall by clinging to cracks and crevices, but it is far too weak to create them. Ivy grown on new sturdy brick structures not only looks good but can benefit the wall by aiding in temperature control and moisture reduction.
Train your ivy to grow where you want it to and be vigilant that it does not take hold on any wooden portions of your home.
Also ensure that you are growing the right kind of ivy on your home. There are many invasive species of ivy that can actually penetrate even newer masonry and also threatens nearby trees.
Poor Ivy Locations
Brick walls may seem like an automatic good choice for a place to grow ivy. But if the bricks are cracked and the mortar is old and crumbling, you have a very poor location to grow ivy. The roots will be able to dig in, weakening the structure and allowing water to penetrate into the structure.
Other places you should avoid allowing ivy to grow:
Wood Surfaces: Wooden structures are easily damaged by ivy growth, weakening the structure and promoting wood rot and insect infestation.
Siding: When ivy gets into the seams of the structure it can creep under the siding and cause damage.
Stucco: Ivy roots will penetrate stucco, and as the plant becomes heavy, the stucco can crack and break apart resulting in discoloration and an unsightly appearance.
Most of us have family photos and one-of-a-kind paper and digital documents that we’d be lost without. It is wise to be aware of what natural disasters and other emergencies damage your irreplaceable documents and how you can protect your documents from emergencies. Keep reading and find out.
How To Protect Your Documents In Case of Emergencies
Natural Disasters Can Damage Your Documents
What natural disasters and emergency situations can damage your priceless documents? Here’s just a few unforeseen circumstances you could find yourself up again:
Fire (from nature or from an electrical failure in your home)
Flooding
Severe Weather (thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.)
Mold Damage
Termites (they like to eat paper as much as they do wood)
Theft
So, what can you do to make sure you don’t lose all your documents during an emergency?
Have an emergency plan. Being unprepared will cost you. Consider having a “go-bag” with photo copies of your important documents, cash, clothes and other necessities. Know what documents you need to protect (birth certificate, marriage license, etc) and have them in multiple safe places.
Keep multiple backups. Always backup your digital and print files. Have photocopies of important documents stored in more than one location - like one at your home, one at your work and another at your parent’s house. Back up digital documents on an external hard drive and to the cloud.
Store priceless documents in a fireproof, flood-proof safe. This is a great safeguard for your home and office. Be sure your safe is installed in the wall or bolted to the floor, so it can’t be easily stolen.
Keep files in elevated places. Never store paper files or photos on the floor - this is inviting water damage. Place your documents in waterproof containers and at the top of shelves or in your attic.
Get mold, crawlspace and critter inspections. Problems sneak up on you when you’re not actively looking out for them. Regularly look for mold in potential trouble areas. Have your crawlspace checked for critters, termites and mold. Wherever you store your documents, keep the area clean, so you don’t invite any unsavory conditions.
