Peak home-fire season arrives; beware of home-heating devices

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

As winter — the most-deadly season for home fires — sets in, fire-safety experts urge people to follow safe home-heating practices.

“Typically, in the months of January and February, we see our highest deaths occur because those are our coldest months,” said Frank Conway, chief of the state Fire Marshal Fire Prevention Bureau.

“We see people turn to alternative heat sources, which, if they’re not properly used, can cause a fire,” he said.

The fire marshal recently reported, as part of its “Safe and Sound” fire-prevention campaign, that as of Dec. 29, 117 Ohioans had died in fires in 2015. Three of those fatalities were in Mahoning County; seven were in Columbiana County; and two were in Trumbull County, according to statistics provided by the state.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.