With the start of the heating season, the National Directorate General of Disaster Prevention (OKF) draws attention to the danger of apartment fires and carbon monoxide poisoning in a statement delivered to MTI on Friday.
61 percent of apartment fires and 60 percent of carbon monoxide poisonings in recent years occurred during the heating season, they wrote.
It was announced: problems resulting from incorrect installation, improper use, and lack of maintenance of heating devices can lead to house fires and carbon monoxide poisoning.
It was pointed out that it is worth entrusting the installation of heating devices to a professionaland the manufacturer’s instructions must be followed for their maintenance. Heating devices should be checked once a year, and if necessary, have it cleaned.
If a new chimney is built, the old one is repaired, renovated, converted or a new heating device is connected to it, it can only be used after an on-site technical inspection has been carried out and the chimney sweep has issued a declaration of conformity for the chimney, it was explained.
According to information Chimney sweepers check and clean chimneys for private individuals free of charge, but people living in family houses must book an appointment. Those who heat with wood or other solid fuels should have a free chimney inspection every two years, and those with gas should do so annually.
It was also pointed out that carbon monoxide is produced where heating is done with an open flame and there is inadequate ventilation, but poisonous gas can be produced not only with gas heating. Therefore, if the combustion chamber of the heating device is accessible and the flame is visible, then the air intake must be ensured, but it is not enough to open the window sometimes, a constant and automatic air supply must be ensured.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas, so it can save lives if a carbon monoxide detector works within one to one and a half meters of the heating device, at head height, they added.
The positive and negative list of carbon monoxide detectors, i.e. which device is effective and which is ineffective, can be found at the following link: https://katasztrofavedelem.hu/33883/szen-monoxid-erzekelok – read in the announcement sent to MTI.
