READING, Pa. – As bitter cold settles in across Berks County, fire officials say they\u2019re seeing more risky heating situations inside homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is bitterly cold outside,\u201d said Jeremy Searfoss, Fire Marshal for the City of Reading. \u201cA lot of the residents that we serve live in buildings that are very drafty. They\u2019re older buildings, so they\u2019re not very energy efficient. If you do heat it, it goes right out.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when people often turn to portable heaters, and that\u2019s when fires can happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to always keep three feet from any kind of portable heating device,\u201d Searfoss said. \u201cIt should be plugged directly into a wall, not an extension cord.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the American Red Cross, winter is the busiest time of year for home fires. Here in Berks County alone, the agency has responded to 14 home fires, helping more than 40 people so far this season.<\/p>\n
Fire officials are also warning against using ovens as a heat source.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving an oven running and having that open presents its own problems, especially for small kids,\u201d Searfoss said. \u201cAnd you can get burns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials say residents should never use an oven to heat their home, never leave space heaters unattended, and make sure smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are working properly.<\/p>\n
As the cold stretch continues, fire officials say simple steps can help reduce risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tell people to bundle up,\u201d Searfoss said. \u201cWear blankets. You lose a lot of your heat through your head. Wear a hat if you\u2019re inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t have a safe or warm place to stay, local shelters including Opportunity House and Hope Rescue Mission in Reading are open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. – As bitter cold settles in across Berks County, fire officials say they\u2019re seeing more risky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[279,349,23051,28,48133,736,128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-98337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks","9":"tag-berks-county","10":"tag-jeremy-searfoss","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-portable-heating-device","13":"tag-reading","14":"tag-reading-city","15":"tag-reading-city-headlines","16":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}