We’ve brought you numerous tips concerning how to stay safe from a fire during the winter, but one topic we haven’t really covered in great detail is ensuring the safety of children around space heaters. Thankfully, Consumer Reports has provided a few tips to parents with young children on that very subject.
For one thing, people should take the precautions they would take even if a child wasn’t in the residence. Any unit you decided upon should have received recognition from Underwriters Laboratory or some similar organization, and the unit should be placed only on the floor. Other furniture could prove unstable and thus shouldn’t be used to hold a space heater, and the heater should be kept away from anything which would be in danger of catching fire.
If you do have children, yet you want to use a space heater, make sure to instruct them not to touch or move the heater or attempt to adjust the controls. If they’re too young to understand these instructions, then keep an eye on the child when a space heater is on in your home
Also make sure the cord itself is in a place where children won’t come across it and be put at risk. An extension cord should be avoided, and the cord of the unit should not have anything atop it, including carpeting. And when it comes time to go to bed, make sure to unplug the heater.