Each year a significant amount of damage is caused by electrical fires. In fact, fire departments in the United States, on average, respond to 25,900 fires that have electrical origins.

The fires are estimated to cause 280 deaths, over 1,000 injuries and over a billion dollars in property damage and loss.

The fact is that homeowners lose much more money each year due to electrical fires than nonelectrical fires. In many cases, and entire home can be lost due to these types of fires.

The primary cause of electric fires include extension cords, overloading the circuits, misuses of your electrical appliances, wiring that has not been installed correctly and defective appliances.

Any fire that is caused by faulty wiring can quickly get out of control, before you have time to take any type of action. In many cases, the fires are difficult to put out, since they are burning inside your walls.

The good news is that there are a number of steps homeowners can take in order to avoid electrical fires in their home, which include:

• Don’t overload your outlets. This means you only plug in one appliance at a time to the wall outlet.

• Replace any frayed electrical cords. When you purchase new ones be certain they have a certification label.

• Never place electrical cords under furniture, carpet or rugs. The cords can overheat, causing a fire.

• Never use extension cords for your appliances. It is important that you plug them right into the wall outlet.

• Don’t overload your power strips. Only plug in a few low-current devices into the power strips you use.

• Use the services of a professional electrical technician. If you need any type of electrical work completed, it is important to have a licensed electrician do it to ensure your home is safe.

The most important thing that you can do to protect your home and family is to ensure you have a monitored fire system that has backup radio monitoring.