Injuries Not Uncommon In Fires Starting In Baseboard Heaters

Electrical baseboard heaters, like the one that may have caused a fire that ripped through the Kona Village Apartments Thursday, killing four and leaving more than 150 homeless, are a relatively common source of fire-related injuries.

Although that type of heater was credited with the lowest rate of fire deaths per million households, it ranked third-highest for injury rate, according to the National Fire Protection Association, a Maryland-based fire-safety organization.

In a five-year study by the association, baseboard heaters were blamed in 5.42 fires per 10,000 households and in 2.35 deaths out of 1 million households.

Electric, fixed-area heaters were linked to 23.5 injuries per 1 million households, according to a national study by the association from 1985 to 1990.

Baseboard heaters are typically long, horizontal units attached to a wall and placed a few inches above the floor. Since February 1996, more than 2.4 million baseboard heaters have been recalled, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, D.C.

"America's home-heating fire problem is primarily a problem of portable and space heaters," the report says.

"Central heating units present a far smaller risk. Portable and space heaters pose a greater risk because they provide so many more opportunities for error by the occupants, in installing, maintaining . . . and arranging household contents around them."

It remained uncertain whether a baseboard heater caused the fire on the third-floor unit of the apartments at 1717 N.E. Sheridan Road that spread to the rest of the 140-unit building.

Dead in the fire were George and Virginia Campbell, 76 and 75, respectively, Hugh Sharp, 88, and Gladys Curtis, 91.

The resident of the apartment where the fire started was not home when the fire began, said Margie Moore, federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms special agent in charge.

Fire authorities sent a portion of the unit's baseboard heater to a State Patrol crime lab to determine what caused a fire to ignite, said Michele Laboda, spokeswoman for North Kitsap Fire and Rescue.

"They were pretty definitive that the heater caused the fire, but they are also not ruling out that electric outlet," Laboda said, adding that she didn't know what kind of heater was in use but that all baseboard heaters need to be used carefully.

"People who have these kind of heaters need to keep combustible things a long distance away from them. People can have drapes, clothes or newspapers over the heater, and that's just asking for trouble."

There are about 6 million households with electric baseboard heating units in the country, said Julie Reynolds, National Fire Protection Association spokeswoman.

Officials with the Seattle Fire Department, which does not keep data on the kind of heaters causing fires, said baseboard heaters and wall heaters are always a concern to firefighters at this time of year.

"Both kind of heaters are equally dangerous," said Capt. Brian Mills, spokesman for the Seattle Fire Department.

He recommended keeping objects 12 inches to 18 inches from baseboard heaters.