A typical appliance repair emergency could be a leak or smoke or even flames coming from the household appliance.
If an appliance emergency happens in your house, unplug the appliance immediately and then call Express Irvine Appliance Repair for local appliance repair in Irvine. If there is an electrical fire from one of the appliances inside of your house, we advise calling the town fire department before attempting to extinguish the fire yourself.
An electrical fire is very scary and extremely dangerous, but there are a couple of steps to be prepared in case of an emergency. If one of your appliances goes up in flames, it is very important to not panic and to remain calm. Follow our simple guidelines to keep your house safe from electrical fires.
Homeowners are able to stop electrical fires before they start by following a couple of basic guidelines for appliance safety in a home. Do not plug a lot of electrical devices into one electrical outlet—the wiring can get overloaded and spark a fire, especially if there is debris like paper or clothes nearby the outlet.
Sometimes we forget about the dangers of large home appliances since they stay plugged in all of the time, but they still present as much of a fire hazard as smaller appliances like toasters and space heaters. Large appliances like a dishwasher or washing machine shouldn’t be left to run overnight or while you’re away from home, and don’t keep a refrigerator or freezer in line of direct sunlight, in order to prevent overworking their cooling systems inside.
Check all of the outlets regularly for excessive heat, signs of burns, and crackling or buzzing sounds that could indicate electrical arcing. Make sure you have at least one smoke detector on each floor of your home, and test the smoke detectors often to keep them in good working order.
If there’s an appliance repair emergency such as an electrical fire, it might be tempting to put out the flames with water, but water should not be used to douse an electrical appliance fire.
Water conducts electricity, and dumping water on or near a power source could cause a dangerous electrical shock. It might even make the fire worse. Water might conduct the electricity to additional areas of the room, increasing the risk of igniting more flammable items nearby.
The immediate step you want to do is to unplug the electric appliance from the power source and call your fire department. Even if you think you can take care of the fire yourself, it’s important to have help if the fire does get out of control.
For little fires, you might be able to use baking soda to douse the fire. Covering the smoking or burning spot with some baking soda will sometimes block oxygen flow to the flames with minimal chance of electrocution. Baking soda also includes sodium bicarbonate, which is the chemical used in regulation fire extinguishers. You also might be able to extinguish a small fire with a heavy blanket as well, but only if the fire is small enough not to catch the heavy blanket on fire too.
For larger electrical appliance fires, use a Type C fire extinguisher. You should always be sure you have at least one Type C extinguisher in your house. Extinguishers should also be checked consistently to ensure they haven’t expired. If you have a working fire extinguisher in the home, just release the pin at the top, aim the nozzle at the flames, and squeeze the handle. If the fire gets too big to put out by yourself or you think the fire could block an exit, leave the house as fast as possible, close the door behind you, and then wait for help from the fire department.
For the smaller appliance fires, call Express Irvine Appliance Repair once the fire is extinguished and we can identify the cause of the fire and repair the appliance and return it to working order.
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