Avoid These Dangers of Heating Your Home When the Power's Out

In Texas, unprecedented cold weather has left people in homes without heat. While many wore double layers of clothes and huddled under blankets to keep warm, others took risks to heat their homes.

When a family in Houston left their car running for heat, a woman and child died of carbon monoxide poisoning. In Sugar Land, three children and their grandmother died in a fire thought to be related to the home’s fireplace.

Desperate times can force people to make choices that are unsafe. They might not realize that what they are doing is dangerous. If the power goes out, you should know about the potential dangers of turning to alternative methods of heating your home.

The Dangers of Home Heating Without Power

Dan Halyburton, the lead spokesperson for the American Red Cross in North Texas and a volunteer with the organization, tells Verywell that Texans have unknowingly been taking dangerous measures to stay warm, like bringing a gas or charcoal grill into the house or burning charcoal in their fireplaces.

“When you are cold and your children are cold you are likely to do just about anything to take care of them,” Halyburton says. “That is why we are always preaching preparation and telling people to prepare for the worst situations out there.”

Fires

“Home fires are often directly related to people trying to heat their homes, and in many cases doing so improperly,” Halyburton says.

Texas usually has only brief spells of cold temperatures—nothing like what was felt in February. Many residents simply were not accustomed to such weather and did not take proper precautions.

“They were not thinking about carbon monoxide poisoning or the risk of fire. If they had a fireplace in their home, they might not have used it often or maintained it,” Halyburton says. “A lot of people think, ‘I can put a fire in there anytime.’”

According to the Chimney Safety Institute of America, a dirty chimney or one that has not been maintained can lead to a chimney fire, which can burn explosively.

An unused chimney or the flue may get clogged without the homeowner knowing it; for example, with bird or animal nests. When a fireplace or woodstove chimney has not been cleaned for a while, the inside can become coated with a chemical called creosote, which can catch fire.

Creosote can build up if your chimney is not properly vented or if unseasoned wood is burned. A poorly maintained chimney or fireplace can also cause deadly carbon monoxide to build up in your home.

“You want to make sure that anything that has to do with fire or with heating not only has been used properly, but has also been properly maintained,” Halyburton says. He adds that furnace vents, chimneys, fireplaces, and woodstoves all need to be maintained.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas that is given off whenever anything is burned, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Halyburton says that there was also “an alarming number of carbon monoxide cases and deaths in Dallas County.”

Car exhaust systems can be major sources of carbon monoxide. According to the CDC, you should never run a car inside a garage attached to your house—even if the garage door is open.

Because of carbon monoxide risks, if you have an emergency generator, you should never bring it into the house or an attached garage. You should also never use a generator less than 20 feet from a window into your house.

Never use a gas range or oven to heat your home. If you’re using a fireplace, make sure that the room is ventilated by a window cracked open slightly.

Learn About Home Heating Safety

The American Red Cross offers several free apps to help people prepare for emergencies, including natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods. There is also a website where you can learn how to use an emergency generator safely. 

The organization’s general Emergency App allows individuals to monitor for many types of severe weather or emergency alerts in a given location and information on how to prepare for many kinds of situations.“There are all kinds of preparedness steps for just about anything,” Halyburton says. “Except the Zombie apocalypse. That’s not in it.”