An appliance repair emergency could be a leak or smoke or even a fire coming from the home appliance.
If an appliance emergency happens in your house, unplug the appliance right away and call Next Noblesville Appliance Repair for local appliance repair in Noblesville. If there’s an electrical fire happening with one of the large or small appliances inside your home, we advise calling the local fire department even before you attempt to put out the fire yourself.
An electrical fire is scary and extremely dangerous, but there are a couple of steps to be prepared in case of an emergency. If one of your appliances is in flames, it’s important not to panic. Follow these easy guidelines to keep your house safe from electrical fires.
HOW TO PREVENT ELECTRICAL FIRES
You are able to prevent electrical fires before they start by following a couple of basic guidelines for appliance safety in a home. Don’t plug too many devices into a single electrical outlet—the wiring can get overloaded and then spark a fire, especially when there is debris like paper or clothes near the electrical outlet.
It can be easy to forget about the apparent dangers of larger home appliances since they remain plugged in all of the time, but they still present as much of a fire hazard as smaller devices like kitchen toasters and heaters. Large appliances like a dishwasher or washing machine shouldn’t be left to run overnight or while you are not at home, and try not to keep a freezer or refrigerator in direct sunlight, in order to prevent possibly overworking their cooling systems.
Inspect all of the outlets on a regular basis for extreme heat, signs of burns, and crackling or buzzing sounds that might indicate electrical arcing. Make sure you store at least one smoke detector on each floor of your house, and test them quarterly to keep them in good working condition.
WHAT TO NOT DO
If there’s an appliance repair emergency such as an electrical fire, it can be tempting to douse the fire with water, but water should never be used to fight an electrical appliance fire.
Water conducts electricity, and dumping water on a power source could give a dangerous electrical shock. It might even make the fire stronger. Water might conduct electricity to additional parts of the room, increasing the risk of igniting other flammable objects in the room.
HOW TO EXTINGUISH AN ELECTRICAL FIRE
The immediate step you should do is unplug the electric device from the power outlet and call your fire department. Even if you are able to extinguish the fire yourself, it’s important to have help if the flames do get out of hand.
For small fires, you could be able to use baking soda to douse the flames. Covering the smoking or burning spot with a layer of baking soda can prevent oxygen flow to the fire with little risk of electrocution. Baking soda includes sodium bicarbonate, which is the same chemical in standard fire extinguishers. You also could be able to put out a small fire with a heavy blanket, but only when the flames are small enough to not catch the blanket on fire too.
For large electrical fires, use a Type C fire extinguisher. You should be sure you own at least one Type C extinguisher in your house. Extinguishers need to be inspected often to be sure they haven’t expired. If you have a operational extinguisher in the home, just pull the pin near the top, point the hose at the source of the flames, and press the handle. If the flames get too big to put out alone or you think the fire could block an exit, you should leave the house as fast as possible, close the door behind you, and then wait for assistance from the local fire department.
For the smaller appliance fires, call Next Noblesville Appliance Repair once the fire is under control and we can identify the reason for the fire and repair the appliance and restore it to working order.
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