Spring Cleaning Safety

ZANESVILLE, OH – Spring is officially here which has prompted some people to begin their spring cleanings.

While a lot of Ohioans are working on cleaning up the appearance of their homes, the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of State Fire Marshal is urging people to also improve their homes’ safety this spring.

Paul Martin, the Fire Prevention Assistant Chief, says a good place to start is by decluttering inside and outside of your home.

“You want to open those windows and get the fresh air in,” Martin explained. “But I would say one of the biggest things you can do is declutter, get rid of some of the stuff that’s blocking egress, if you’ve got any extra material laying around, get rid of that, and around the outside of your house. Getting any of that, leaves and things like that, up and away, that way if we do have any kind of wildfire activity, that’s not up against your house.”

Martin recommends checking your grill for any nests, cobwebs, or other debris that may have built up over the winter as well as cleaning any grease buildup out from the burners.

He also suggested doing a deep clean of your dryer vents to help prevent fires.

“Obviously, you want to make sure that you’re changing those lint traps and cleaning those lint traps out after every use.” Martin said. “But what most people don’t know is you should also take the back off of that once a year, clean out the backside of it, really get in there with a shopvac or something and suck all that excess lint out of there and that’ll be the perfect time for spring cleaning.”

Martin also says to include checking and replacing the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors on your spring cleaning to-do list.