Fire Chief Issues PSA on Using Cooking Appliances For Home Heat

Sedalia Fire Chief Greg Harrell has issued a PSA concerning using cooking appliances for home heating as the SFD has seen a couple of cases of this in the past week.

With the recent increase of Residential fires, the City of Sedalia and the Sedalia Fire Department would like to remind everyone not to attempt to heat your home or apartment with cooking appliances. Cooking appliances such as stoves are not meant as heating devices.

Using them in this manner is extremely dangerous and can cause a fire or health issues such as carbon monoxide poisoning. Leaving an oven door open or the burners turned on for heat may cause a fire or injury to people They are not designed to be used in this manner.

If you are instructed to do so by someone, please contact the City of Sedalia Code Enforcement at 827-3000 to report this. Also, if you are using space heaters to supplement or as your primary heat source, please be careful with power cords, extension cords and always monitor them for overheating or falling over or other improper operations to avoid a fire or injury. Remember, it only takes seconds for a fire to start and escalate.

If you need help or a smoke detector please remember to contact the Sedalia Fire Department at 826-8044.