By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
After a short bit of warmer weather, frigid temperatures are hitting the area again this weekend, with highs not expected over 10 degrees until Sunday.
St. Joseph Fire Inspector Steve Henrichson says if you pull out those space heaters to stay warm, make sure to give it three feet of space.
"Where nothing combustible is within three feet of it while it's running," Henrichson tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "You never want to leave them unattended, because if a cat comes along and knocks it off or something falls on top of it you want to be there, you don't want to leave it running while you're out of the house or things like that."
Henrichson adds if you have a heater rated for indoor use that runs on gas or propane.
"You also need to have a CO detector just in case something internally goes wrong so you're not poisoning yourself while you use them," Henrichson explains.
Henrichson says they do see an increased number of fires this time of year due to external heating sources.
"We always do when people bring out the space heaters or people that are squatting things like that, start small fires and get away from them," Henrichson says. "There's all kinds of reasons for it."
With the bitter cold, homeless individuals could look to squat inside vacant homes to stay warm, sometimes by starting fires.
Henrichson says while they haven't seen any cases of that this year, they often do during colder weather. Henrichson says people should keep an eye out in their neighborhood.
"Everybody in the neighborhood, I mean there's three of us inspectors and how many thousands of houses in St. Joe that need attention," Henrichson points out. "If you see something in your neighborhood, get ahold of property maintenance, if you see somebody going into a house that doesn't belong to them call the PD."
Henrichson says though with efforts in place to help get people into homes or off the streets, things seem to be getting better this year.