 |
| Clothes dryer fire destroys Kettering
home - By Judson Berger, Gazette.net (12/23/05) |
A fire that began in a basement clothes dryer destroyed a Kettering
home early Dec. 22, sending two firefighters to the hospital
and causing about $350,000 of damage. The Prince George’s County fire department reported
that the family started the dryer before leaving the house
to run errands that morning. A neighbor who saw smoke coming
from the house, on the 400 block of Richton Court, reported
the fire at 8:15 a.m.Fifty firefighters and paramedics fought the fire for 45
minutes before extinguishing it. In the wake of the blaze,
two firefighters were sent to local hospitals with minor injuries,
and the family has lost heir home and most of their possessions. The county fire department advises residents to never operate
a dryer without a lint filter, and to clean the filter regularly.
The department also asks residents to turn their dryers off
before leaving their homes, and to have them professionally
installed and serviced by a professional. |
| Family Left Homeless After Clothes Dryer Fire,
Two People, Three Dogs Survive Blaze
- By NBC6.net
(12/13/05) |
HIALEAH, Fla. -- A Tuesday morning clothes dryer fire in Hialeah has left a family homeless.
The family said the fire was caused by lint in the ventilation duct. Firefighters managed to rescue three dogs that were in the house. The dogs were unconscious when they were pulled out, but firefighters resuscitated them. The mother and son who were in the house also made it out safely. "Hopefully we can find help. My mom and sister are OK. That's all I care about," said Pedro Lassus, who survived the fire. Because the house is still unsafe to live in, the family will likely stay with relatives. |
| Dryer fire - By
Goldsboro News Argus (12/08/05) |
MOUNT OLIVE -- A heating and air-conditioning crew saw a fire Wednesday at an old colonial home at 309 E. James St. and put it out, keeping damages to a minimum, officials said.
"They saw the fire under the house, set up an old-fashioned bucket brigade and dumped water on it," Assistant Mount Olive Fire Chief Greg Wiggins said. "They had it knocked down by the time we got there."
Lint in the dryer was blamed. The fire was confined to the laundry room, but smoke damage spread through the home. Mount Olive firefighters needed about 40 minutes to investigate the cause, ventilate the home and finish salvage work.
Damages were estimated at $2,000. The home, owned by Kenny Moore, was valued at $400,000.
|
| Dryer vent steam spurs evacuation - By MrtyleBeachOnline.com (12/07/05) |
Residents of the Ivy Stone Apartments had to be evacuated for about 45 minutes Tuesday night after a dryer vent clogged with lint mixed with the cold night air and produced what appeared to be heavy smoke, authorities said.
Todd Cartner with Horry County Fire Rescue said there were no reported injuries and that the evacuation was done as a precaution.
The incident was reported around 9:20 p.m.
|
| Quinte West - Lint from dryer causes
trailer park fire - By Kate Everson, Stirling Community Press
(12/06/05) |
It was just some lint from the dryer, but it was the cause of
a fire at Sunnycreek Estates in Bayside on November 28 around
10 p.m.
“A couple and four kids escaped,” said Deputy Fire
Chief John Whelan. The cause of the fire was determined to be
lint piled up behind the dryer. Bayside fire department responded
immediately to 9-1-1 calls and requested help from Batawa which
brought tanker trucks because there were no fire hydrants nearby.
“They did an excellent job,“ Whelan said. “The
trailers were in such close proximity, but the fire crews stopped
the fire from spreading. It could have been much worse.”
The family at 95 5th Street had no insurance. Their home, worth
about $70,000 was destroyed. Local agencies are working to help
the homeless family. |
| Two weekend fires blamed on lint in
dryers - By Shaw Israel Izikson, North Adams Transcript (11/21/05)
|
NORTH ADAMS — Two fires that occurred within the span of 24
hours both started from household dryers, firefighters said. The
first fire occurred on Friday at around 11:17 p.m. at the 107
Furnace St. residence of Richard F. Sheldon. According to acting
Lt. Pat Bradley, the
fire started because the lint collector in the dryer was not
cleaned properly. The property suffered minor smoke and
water damage, but no one was hurt in the fire. The second fire
occurred on Saturday at around 2:30 p.m. at 1145 Massachusetts
Ave. at the residence of Michael Bouley. The fire started
because the build up of lint in the dryer itself and in the hose
connected to the dryer. The fire was confined to the basement,
and only minor property damage was reported. Bradley said that
to prevent house fires from starting in dryers, residents should
take more time to clean the dryer's lint filter, as well as the
hose leading to the dryer's vent. "Some of the lint accumulates
in the hose, and it also may accumulate moisture and water,"
Bradley said. According to the Fire Analysis and Research
Division of the National Fire Protection Association, dryers are
responsible for an estimated 14,100 home fires in the U.S.
annually, causing over 65 million in property damage. The
Consumer Product Safety Commission's Web site suggests that, to
prevent dryer fires, the lint filter should be cleaned after
each load of clothes is completed. If clothes after a normal
cycle are still damp, this may mean that the exhaust hose or
lint screen is blocked and needs to be cleaned. Hoses leading to
outside ducts should be checked often for kinks and crushing,
which can block the airflow of the dryer. If worse comes to
worse, either take the hose apart and clean it out with a vacuum
cleaner, or buy a new hose at a hardware store. "A hose costs
about $6 at most stores, and that could prevent a house fire
right there," Bradley said. |
| Clothes dryer starts fire at house - By
DuluthNewsTribune.com (10/08/05)
|
A clothes dryer
started a fire at 1229 Minnesota Ave. in Duluth on
Friday, causing about $40,000 worth of damage to a woman's home.
The fire put itself out before the Duluth Fire department
responded shortly after 7 p.m., said Jim Ray, assistant fire
chief. No one was injured, but smoke and soot caused substantial
damage. The woman's cat, found coughing near the door, was taken
to a local veterinarian. |
| Dryer lint buildup sparks fatal fire
- By Cara Roberts Murez, StatesmanJournal.com (09/09/05)
|
A fire late Wednesday at a rural Yamhill County house killed
a 68-year-old woman and injured another woman and two children.
Firefighters were called at 11:06 p.m. to the house on Grahm
Avenue north of the city of Yamhill. Firefighters stayed outside
to attack the flames because of the fire's intensity. About
50 firefighters were on the scene. Six of the family members who lived there had evacuated before
firefighters arrived.
They include a 30-year-old woman and a 4-year-old boy who
were taken by Life Flight to Legacy Emanuel Hospital for treatment
of extensive burns and injuries. A 7-year-old girl was taken
to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries and later was
released. All are improving, said Debbie McDermott, a fire inspector
for the McMinnville Fire Department
A man and two teenage girls were not injured.
The identity of the woman who died was not released.
The home was destroyed and the loss was estimated at $100,000.
The fire started under the house when lint from a dryer vent
ignited. The dryer was not able to completely vent under the
house, officials said. |
| House fire - By Hometownannapolis.com
(09/08/05) |
Four children and one adult were displaced after a fire this
morning on Admiral Drive, city firefighters said. The fire was reported at 4:14 a.m. at 223 Admiral Dr., Capt.
Joseph Martin said. The blaze, which was originally believed
to be a kitchen fire, was under control in 20 minutes. It
was later determined that the fire was accidental and originated
from a lint buildup behind a dryer unit, Capt. Martin said.
The fire caused $30,000 worth of damage. There were no injuries.
|
| Firefighter Injured In South Bakersfield
Blaze -By TheBakersfieldChannel.com (08/10/05) |
BAKERSFIELD -- A south Bakersfield blaze injured a firefighter
and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage Tuesday
night. The fire started at about 7:30 p.m. at 6001 Via Lucca,
where the flames quickly spread through the house. Fire officials
said the blaze began
after dust and lint caught fire in a clothes dryer. Witnesses
said the fire set off what appeared to be explosions within
the home. "When I came outside, I just seen a little bit
of fire coming up, and after that, I just started to hear real
loud booms," said eyewitness Isaac Chatman. More than 30
city and county firefighters were called in to help. One of
them suffered a moderate ankle injury while deploying hose lines
during the initial fire attack. He was transported to a nearby
hospital, where he was treated and released. Firefighters estimated
the damage at $150,000. |
| $1m fire caused by dryer - By AAP, News.com.au
(06/26/05) |
LINT caught in a clothes
dryer sparked a blaze which severely damaged an historic
hotel at Trentham, north of Melbourne, a Country Fire Authority
spokesman said. The damage bill has been estimated at $1 million.
CFA's George Ellis said the cause of the fire at the Cosmopolitan
Hotel early today had been traced to a duct in an industrial
clothes dryer. "There was a build
up of lint which caught fire and caused the further damage,"
he said. Advertisement: "The lower storey is intact but
it sustained a lot of water and smoke damage," Mr Ellis
said. "The roof and ceiling of the building was all destroyed."
Bruce McKenzie has lived next door to the hotel for 78 years
and said the whole place was made of wood. "There were
all wooden shingles under the iron roof which is great insulation,
but unfortunately is hard to put out," he said. Mr McKenzie
said while the fire service did a fine job, the loss of a building
from the 1860s was sad. "It's very much an important part
of Trentham's history, it's one of the earliest buildings and
it's been there a long, long time," he said. "If they
do rebuild it, it won't be the same." Mr McKenzie's wife,
Faye, said it was a "terrible business" for the hotel
owners, who only bought it a couple of months ago. "It's
very sad for them and the whole town," she said. The fire
is believed to have started around 1.30am (AEST) today. |
| Clogged dryer hose starts garage fire
- By Cara Roberts Murez, Statesman Journal (06/24/05)
|
A fire in a Keizer garage late Wednesday began in a clothes
dryer, officials said. A clogged
vent hose caused the dryer to overheat and catch fire
at the house at 2449 Aldine Court NE, the Keizer Fire District
said. Firefighters were called at 11:42 p.m. after the family
found heavy smoke in the garage. Jason and Brenda Hart own the
house and live there with their two children. Their 14-year-old
daughter told firefighters that she had been drying a pillow
earlier in the evening and took it out of the dryer because
she thought she smelled burning plastic. Her 9-year-old brother
smelled smoke about an hour later. The children found heavy
smoke in the garage and told their parents, who called 911.
|
| Dryer lint the culprit behind basement
fire - By Dan Atkinson, TownOnline.com (05/13/05) |
A fire started by dryer
lint caused $40,000 in damages to a Fayette Street house
last week, but none of the residents were injured. The fire
started in the afternoon on Saturday, May 7, in the basement
of 196 Fayette St., according to Fire Captain Daniel Walsh.
Residents smelled smoke and were able to leave the building
quickly and contact the Fire Department before the fire spread
beyond the basement. After putting out the blaze, firefighters
found a "pretty well-clogged" dryer filter, Walsh
said. A lint-choked filter blocks heat from exiting the dryer,
leading to a potentially hazardous build-up, Walsh said. Filters
should be emptied regularly even if the dryer is new, he said,
and homeowners should try to keep their vents as straight as
possible to avoid blockage from bends. "If the heat
is blocked, it'll build up, and it has to go somewhere,"
he said. Last month's fire at 190 Arlington St., though, was
probably caused by a carelessly tossed cigarette butt, Walsh
said. |
| Dryer blamed for fire that guts mobile
home - By John Parks of AccessNorthGa.com (04/13/2005)
|
GAINESVILLE - Hall County Fire Fighters were called out Tuesday
night to a mobile home blaze, apparently caused by a dryer.
Fire Marshall Scott Cagle says the call came in at about 7:20
pm. When they arrived at the home at 6107 Cardinal Drive, in
Timber Ridge Estates Mobile Home Park, off Grant Ford Road,
the 14-by-60 mobile home was fully involved in fire. "The
mobile home, valued at approximately $40,000, is listed as a
total loss," says Cagle. Brenda Sue Harper, her children
and their pets escaped the burning home without injury. The
home, according to Cagle, is owned by Johnny Harper, identified
as her brother. The dryer, according to Cagle, overheated.
"There was a full load of clothes in the dryer," he
says, " as well as the dryer
vent itself clogged with lint. "This is a reminder,
and a wake-up call " says the fire marshall," to clean
those dryers , especially the vents, every cycle." |
| Dryer lint leads to HHP fire, Afternoon
fire forced evacuation, caused $8,000 in damages - By
Diamondbackonline.com (04/07/05) |
A laundry fire at the Health and Human Performance Building
yesterday afternoon forced crowds of students outside — most
of them in workout clothes — while firefighters squelched the
small flames in about 15 minutes. Lint
inside a dryer caught fire just before noon, after two
staff members put laundry in the dryer and left for lunch. The
fire caused about $8,000 in damage, University Police Spokeswoman
Maj. Cathy Atwell said. “If
you don’t clean the lint out of your dryer, it’s very combustible,”
Atwell said. Students sat outside on brick walls near the building,
which is next to the Campus Recreation Center, and watched as
firefighters from College Park, Berwyn Heights and Prince George’s
County went in and out. Battalion Chief LeRoy Smith of the Prince
George’s County Fire Department said the call originally came
in for a roof fire, but once on the scene, firefighters realized
the fire was in the laundry room. Firefighters struggled to
ventilate the building, but cleared the smoke in time to resume
classes, Smith said. Many students thought it was just a drill
when the fire alarm went off and said they were glad to have
the time taken away from classes. “I didn’t think it was an
actual fire until I heard the fire trucks,” said Jason Lee,
a junior kinesiology major, who missed the end of one of his
classes because of the fire. |
| Dryer the cause of a fire at 7 Hills
Community - By Mike Gaffney - TownOnline.com (03/24/2005)
|
Fire Chief James Blanchard is urging residents to be cautious
when doing laundry after a fire that ignited in a dryer almost
burned down a building housing mentally challenged adults. Crews
from Engine 1, Engine 3 and Ladder 1 rushed to the 7 Hills Community
complex on Lynn Fells Parkway last Thursday when an automatic
alarm went off shortly after 9:30 p.m., Blanchard said. Although
a tremendous amount of smoke filled the building firefighters
struggled at first to locate the source of the blaze, he said,
eventually tracking it to an addendum to the basement. Once
in the remote area of the basement, firefighters saw flames
coming out of the top of the dryer. Blanchard said the blaze
was so severe that it managed to work its way up through the
dryer vents and melted the controls on top. "The dryer
really cooked up," Blanchard said. "It completely
burned out and the whole thing is black. You look at it and
it's a wonder the whole place didn't burn down." Blanchard
said firefighters under the direction of Capt. Arthur Sinclair
were able to quickly get the fire under control. But not before
a considerable amount of harm was done to the building - $10,000
in estimated smoke damage alone. A subsequent investigation
revealed that the dryer was operating when the fire started,
Blanchard said. He added it isn't uncommon for clothes to catch
fire in dryers and that the Fire Department has had to deal
with similar situations in the past. Fortunately, Blanchard
said the staff at 7 Hills was able to get all of the residents
out of the building. He credited their fleet response and the
fact the fire was contained in a concrete section of the basement
as factors why no one was hurt. According to Blanchard there
is a considerable amount of work that needs to be done to fix
the damage the fire caused at 7 Hills. However, Blanchard noted
the building is habitable and that the residents are back in
their rooms as the cleanup effort continues. Blanchard said
there are things residents can do to cut down on the chances
of such a fire starting in their homes. First, Blanchard stressed
the importance of taking the time to clean out the lint filter
whenever anyone uses the dryer.
Lack of maintenance is the leading cause of dryer fires and
excess lint is usually to blame for igniting them. Blanchard
also advised that it's not a good idea to ever leave your home
when the dryer is running in case something happens. |
| Dryer lint blamed for fire at Woodland
home - By Loryll Nicolaisen, Daily Democrat (02/25/05)
|
A home just a few houses down from Woodland Fire Station 2 was
the focus of a multi-engine call Thursday morning. The call
reported a house on fire on El Dorado Drive near West Street,
according to Battalion Chief Wyatt Cline. A repairman was soldering
pipes under the house when some lint
caught on fire, Cline said. The flash fire burned an
accumulation of lint under a subfloor. Firefighters used a thermal
imaging camera to find hot spots so they could cool the blaze.
Three people who were in the house at the time of the fire were
able to make it out safely. Cline said he couldn't estimate
damage caused by the fire, but indicated not much harm was caused.
The repairman was uninjured. "Luckily it wasn't as bad
as its potential," he said. |
| Dryer burns; smoke kills man in home
- By Lexington Herald-Leader (02/19/2005) |
A 61-year-old Lexington man died from smoke inhalation early
yesterday after a clothes dryer caught fire. Joseph Lawson,
of 517 Kildare Court, collapsed while trying to escape the fire,
which was reported at 3:21 a.m., said Jim Wells, battalion chief
of the Lexington fire department. He was taken to University
of Kentucky Hospital, where he died from smoke inhalation, the
Fayette County coroner's office said. Wells said six other people
who were in the home when the fire began made it out safely.
He did not know how many of those people lived in the house.
The fire probably started because too
much lint was in the vent of the clothes dryer, Wells
said. The house was heavily damaged. Funeral arrangements for
Lawson at Hawkins Funeral Home, 632 Pine Street, were incomplete
yesterday. |
| Clothes Dryer Fire Turns Fatal In Rochester
Hills - By ClickOnDetroit.com (02/15/05) |
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. -- House Apparently Had No Smoke Detectors.
Firefighter said a house fire that turned fatal in Rochester
Hills started from a clothes dryer. Authorities responded to
the fire at a home in the 2700 block of Venome Monday afternoon.
A fatal fire in Rochester Hills started from this clothes dryer.
Firefighters removed a 57-year-old woman from the home. She
was taken to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, where she was pronounced
dead on arrival. Inspectors later determined that the
fire was sparked by a clothes dryer. Most recent national statistics
show that more than 14,000 dryers caught fire in 1998, causing
312 injuries and 19 deaths, Local 4 reported. Authorities say
that lint in dryers
is combustible and dryers that have an
inadequate ventilation system can quickly catch fire
when overheating. "If for some reason, your clothes are
taking twice as long to dry or something like that, you need
to have your dryer checked because that could be a real cause,"
said Rochester Hills Fire Department Chief Ron Crowell. Oakland
County Sheriff's deputies said they do not know if the 57-year-old
woman died from smoke inhalation or burn wounds. There were
apparently no smoke detectors inside the home, officials said.
|
| Animal nest cause of Hanover Township
basement fire - By TimesLeader.com (02/09/2005) |
HANOVER TWP. - Township Fire Chief Stanley Browski said a Tuesday
morning basement fire at a Main Road home was caused by a small
animal nest inside the exhaust pipe of the dryer. Browski
said the flex pipe dryer discharge on the outside of the home
was less then 12-inches off the ground and large enough for
a small animal, possibly a chipmunk, to enter it. The
nest, made of lint, pine needles and straw clogged the exhaust
pipe, causing the fire just before 11 a.m. at 448 Main
Road, he said. The fire has been ruled accidental. |
| Dryer lint, ventilation cause fire- By
Jennifer Roy , Daily News Tribune (02/03/05) |
WALTHAM -- Fire officials are blaming a combination of dryer
lint, a venting problem and heat for a fire that damaged
the multi-family home at 43 Jacqueline Road Monday afternoon.
Fire officials said the fire started in the ceiling of the laundry
room and heavily charred the rafters. Firefighters were called
to the building just after 2:30 p.m., only hours after an appliance
company checked the vents on the dryers, according to a report.
The building's property manager told fire officials an appliance
company had worked on the dryers earlier in the day because
they had reportedly not been working properly. Fire officials
said the vent for the middle dryer appeared to be disconnected
in the ceiling and a lot of lint had collected there. The combination
of lint, a venting problem and heat appears to have caused the
fire, officials said. Firefighters used a thermal imaging camera
to check for fire in the walls of the building. A smoke detector
alerted residents to the fire, officials said. No one was injured.
|
| Woman Hurt, Cat Dies In Dunmore Apartment
Fire - By Scranton Times Tribune (01/30/2005) |
A fire that started
in a dryer heavily damaged a Dunmore apartment and sent
a woman to the hospital for smoke inhalation Saturday morning,
fire officials said. Fire crews were called to the second floor
apartment at 128 Willow St. at 8:28 a.m., said Chief Vince Arnone.
Scranton sent four fire trucks to assist Dunmore. Resident Paula
Simone, 23, was treated at Community Medical Center for smoke
inhalation. Her cat was killed by smoke, Chief Arnone said.
The fire apparently started in a dryer in a small laundry room
in the apartment, he said. The fire spread to the walls and
other rooms, damaging much of the apartment. The building, which
includes another apartment with two residents, is uninhabitable,
Chief Arnone said. It took firefighters 20 to 25 minutes to
get the blaze under control, he said. |
| Family recovering after home destroyed
by fire - By Dennis W. Sowers Of The Press Staff (01/272005)
|
The Taylor children found out last week that some of the hard
lessons of life are learned early. A malfunctioning dryer at
their home caused a fire last Thursday and eventually burned
the place where they slept, ate and played. Most of the children
were across the street at Central Elementary, Miller, watching.
"They called them into the office," said mother Holly
Taylor, owner of the salon Bad Hair Day in Carthage. "They
had to talk to them. "Our house is right across the street
from the elementary school. They had to watch their house burn
down." The fire started about 1:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon
after husband, Rick, turned
the dryer on and left the house. It burned for hours
and hours, mainly because a metal
roof kept the fire trapped inside. The Taylors -- Brad,
Holly, Levi, 15, Jacob, 12, Kenneth, 9, Tressie, 12, Kadi, 11,
Tasha, 8, and Tayla, 5. -- have spent the last week in a motel
and were planning to move into a former bank building today
in Miller where they could set up dividers for living space.
"We had a real dilemma finding something big enough,"
Holly said. "We just plan to stay there in the building
until the end of the school year, and then move to Carthage.
We haven't had a lot of time to think about it." Grandma
Linda Cummins said the children have had time to consider things.
"You can tell they're thinking about it at odd moments,"
Cummins said. "They went from tragic to adventure to devastation
again," Holly said. She said the children have split time
between grandparents, uncles and aunts. "The family has
really pulled together," Cummins said. Besides an entire
building, the Taylors have lost photos, wedding pictures and
"memories." They didn't lose either the cat, Marshmallow,
or Brad's cell phone. Bother were found later. "I think
of all, at least all my kids and husband are OK," Holly
said. "I've got them to hug and hold. They're not replaceable."
"They're all really sad, but for kids, they're glad everybody
is OK," Holly said. "For their ages, I've been pretty
proud of them." A bank account has been established for
the Taylors at the Bank of America on the Square for those wanting
to contribute. |
| Dryer fire at Newport laundry causes
minimal damage - By Steve Card Of the News-Times (01/19/2005)
|
A dryer-load of shop rags caught fire Friday morning at West
Coast Linen in Newport, but damage was limited to just the rags
themselves. The Newport Fire Department responded to 426 NW
Coast Street at 10:30 a.m. on a report of a dryer fire that
was possibly spreading to the building. What had been thought
to be fire on the roof of the building, however, was in fact
the smoke being exhausted
through the dryer vent. The building itself was undamaged.
When firefighters arrived on scene, employees from the laundry
had already removed most of the shop rags from the dryer, piling
them in the street. Flames occasionally appeared in this smoking
pile of rags as fire personnel spread them out and then used
a hose to douse the fire. Bruce Flaming, owner of West Coast
Linen, said the shop towels simply got too hot in the dryer,
but "we only lost a few rags." He confirmed that no
equipment was damaged. Newport Assistant Fire Chief Toby Cole
said there is a combination of things that would contribute
to spontaneous combustion in a situation like this. Cole also
said that Flaming told him this type of dryer fire is not that
uncommon. A total of 17 firefighters, two engines and an equipment
truck responded to the Friday morning fire. They were on the
scene for about an hour and 45 minutes. |
| Firefighters save cat from fire - By
HollandSentinel.com (01/15/2005) |
Firefighters rescued a Holland woman's cat when they came to
fight a fire Friday morning at her home. The fire was apparently
caused by a dryer. Bobbie Caudillo, 36, 572 W. 18th St. was
putting a load of wash in when she first smelled smoke. Curious,
she opened the dryer and smoke billowed into the room, she said.
She quickly grabbed her Chihuahua, Chico, and told her chow,
Keeta, and her cat, Baby, to follow. Keeta ran out the door
after her, however, Baby was no where to be seen. Outside, wearing
shorts and barefoot, Caudillo called 911. Smoke continued to
fill the house as she worried about her cat. The Holland Fire
Department responded within three minutes said Lt. Andy Stokes,
who found the cat hiding under the bed. "She was pretty
mad when I grabbed on to her," Stokes said. Stokes said
the fire was caused
by lint trapped in the vent hose in the back of the dryer.
He said these fires happen because people simply forget to clean
the vent hose. Its very important for residents to remember
to clean both the lint trap in the front of the dryer and the
vent hose at the back, he said. |
| Raymond responds after fire - By Emily
Zimmerman, SeaCoastOnline.com (01/14/2005) |
RAYMOND - Community support has been pouring in to help Pat
and Warren Currier of 5 Clover Court after their mobile home
burned down last week. The fire, which occurred at about 8 p.m.,
Wednesday, Jan. 5, was caused by a dryer’s
heat build-up, said Fire Chief Kevin Pratt. Pratt said
almost everything the couple owned, furniture, appliances and
clothes, were destroyed. Pratt said the Curriers were able to
sift through the debris and retrieve some family photos, coins
and collectibles that were tucked in drawers. The couple wasn’t
home at the time of the fire. |
| Family sues in boy's fire death - By
Karen Maeshiro, Staff Writer, DailyNews.com (01/09/2005)
|
PALMDALE -- The mother and brother of an 11-year-old boy killed
in a house fire believed to have been
ignited by a clothes dryer have filed a wrongful death
lawsuit against the appliance's manufacturers and others. Lashaul
Drye died and his 12-year-old brother was hospitalized after
they were apparently overcome by smoke when a late-night fire
gutted their two-story home in the 300 block of Alamosa Avenue
in January 2004. "The dryer ignited a fire, which spread
throughout the Drye residence, injuring the plaintiffs ... and
causing the death of Lashaul Drye," the lawsuit said. The
lawsuit was filed by Drye's mother, Sherry Drye, and his brother,
Mikquail, in Antelope Valley Superior Court. The defendants
include Sears, Roebuck and Co.; Whirlpool Corp.; the home's
builder; a company that helped design and construct
the dryer ventilation system; and five people who were
former owners of the house. The lawsuit faults the tract house's
dryer vent system, which ran about 17 feet through a concrete
porch located outside the front door. The dryer vent ended at
the porch's edge and had a louvered cover and screen. "The
dryer ventilation system, including the vent cover, was constructed
in such a way that lint was unable to escape the tubing and
consequently backed up along the 17 feet of dryer tubing,"
the lawsuit said. The lawsuit also said the dryer's manufacturers
failed to design the appliance adequately to shut down when
the ventilation system became obstructed or the temperature
rose to a dangerous level. The younger boy was found lifeless
in a front upstairs bedroom, within a few feet of the window
firefighters broke to get inside, and the older boy was in another
room upstairs. According to a family friend, the older boy had
been sleeping downstairs, and may have gone up to get his brother.
After calling 911 and running outside, Sherry Drye cut her face
and hands breaking windows trying to get back in to rescue her
sons. When firefighters arrived, she was standing in the front
yard screaming that her children were inside. The boys attended
a private school in Los Angeles. Sherry Drye, a single mother,
worked in real estate in Long Beach. The family bought the house
in 1995. |
2004 Dryer Fire Articles
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