NEW ORLEANS -- As temperatures drop below freezing, many fire up their space heaters to keep warm. But those heaters can be dangerous, as the Louisiana State Fire Marshal is investigating whether a space heater may have caused a fatal fire in Belle Chasse Monday morning.
“I ran up here it was in flames nothing I could do. My brother was stuck in there -- he didn't get out,” said Andrew Hicks.
In the early morning hours, Larry Hicks died in his bed inside the family’s trailer. His sister, Gwendolyn got out.
“It’s black smoke. Could hardly see. Just made my way to the door and get out,” she said.
State Fire Marshal Butch Browning said a space heater was likely to blame.
“Space heaters are the third leading cause fires in the U.S. and of course is the primary leading cause during winter months,” Browning said.
One year ago, another person died because of a space heater fire in an Uptown home on Camp Street. "I looked down the driveway and the house was engulfed in flames. I said where my grandma at? They said she in there,” said Tyrone Gayden, grandson of the woman who died, after that fatal fire in December 2008.
Firefighters said space heaters have gotten safer over the years, but that even those with new features can be dangerous.
“That element that we see on an electric heater that's glowing bright orange, will start a fire as quickly as you can put a match to something,” said Deputy Superintendent of the New Orleans Fire Department Timothy McConnell.
Hardware stores in the metro area are selling a wide variety of them.
“The ceramic heaters are new. What they have is a ceramic grate in front of the element so that it's not as dangerous as the open-element units,” said Ron Raley, assistant manager of Harry’s Helpful Ace Hardware in Old Metairie.
Fuel-fired space heaters can pose the biggest problem and many older homes in the metro area are equipped with them.
“I'm tryin’ to find a small gas heater for a bathroom. Do you have any?” asked a woman in the hardware store.
The hardware store managers told her she shouldn't use gas heaters in bathrooms because there are so many things that can catch fire, such as toilet paper and towels. Plus, gas-powered heaters generate carbon monoxide.
“The newer ones have oxygen depletion systems on them, which would cut the unit off if the oxygen level dropped below a certain point to signal that the carbon monoxide level is rising,” McConnell said.
The older ones don't, making carbon monoxide detectors essential.
But the biggest rule for safely using space heaters is not to put anything within three feet of the heater, gas or electric.
A memorial fund has been set up at Regions Bank in the name of Monday’s fire victim, Larry Hicks, to help the family pay for funeral expenses.
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