Be sure you’re staying safe in the cold this weekend. Madison chief fire inspector Scott Strassburg says you want to keep any space heater you’re planning to use on its own outlet, and not plugged into a power strip with other devices.
“Space heaters can run roughly 1200 to 1500 watts, and that’s right at the max of what an outlet normally can provide.” Strassburg says it’s just a matter of addition. “Having more things plugged into it is it’s not just the space heater that’s drawing current, it’s everything that’s plugged into that that’s drawing current.”
You could risk an electrical fire if you plug too many things into one circuit, and then the space heater kicks in.
Strassburg also has a message for the community: check in on your neighbors and loved ones.
TRANSCRIPT – “We really want people to check on their neighbors, check on anybody that might be a little older or just has a little bit of special needs of any kind, or just you haven’t seen a neighbor in a little while. Everybody as a community should check on each other at this time because of the cold. One of the things that we certainly don’t want, obviously we will come out and help them and everything else, but we’d really love to not have that happen, that we have to come out because we’d like to catch it before there’s a problem. Meaning that neighbors check on neighbors and go, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s a little cold in here. It’s warm in my house.’ And they take care of each other that way and then we’re not needed. That would be the greatest thing for us, if we weren’t needed for anything during this cold weather. But obviously all first responders will be there as needed, but it’d be great if the neighbors can take care of each other and the community in itself will be a lot safer.”
Temperatures are expected to remain below zero through Friday and then only get into the single digits.