AA Insurance has sounded the alarm on the number of significant fires that have started in garages.
According to the insurer, in the last 12 months up to 15% of its major fire claims started in garages, with some spreading and blazing the rest of the house. It added that while the majority of house fires start in the kitchen, garage fires were less likely to be detected as quickly because they were mostly not connected to the main dwelling.
Insurance Business spoke to AA Insurance customer relations manager
Amelia Macandrew, who pointed out that one in seven fire claims start in the garage.
“It’s interesting that such a large number of fires are starting in the garage,” she said. “Instead of just being the place to park cars, people are using it for various purposes from storing stuff, including flammable items, to housing their washer, dryer and other appliances, which they often turn on and leave unattended.
“Also at times they convert it into an additional room for their homes. So while the garage accommodates all these things, they’re less likely to have working alarms or up-to-date electrics than the main house.”
Macandrew explained that the hazards are easily remedied if the electrics are up to scratch and power sockets and multi-boards are not overloaded or covered over, which can result in overheating.
Another effective deterrent, according to Macandrew, is the installation of heat alarms.
“They are effective where smoke alarms could mistakenly activate such as in kitchens, laundries and garages,” she explained. “Many kitchen fires are discovered before they spread to the rest of the house when a person remembers they’ve left something on the stove. Conversely, people come and go from their garage, so may not be aware of a fire until it’s too late.”
She added that houses with detached garages are just as susceptible to fire damage.
This is evident, she said, in an AA Insurance customer waking up one night to discover his standalone garage had been set alight after he had forgotten to disconnect an extension cord from a power socket leading to a hot plate used to smoke fish earlier in the day.
“The extension cord had arced and caused a fire that quickly spread from the garage to the roof of the house, razing it to the ground,” she elaborated.
“Fortunately the customer and his family had evacuated their home, and were covered by their full replacement policy for $665,000, including temporary accommodation.”
Another customer, said Macandrew, learned the hard way about poor building maintenance when he received a call from his property manager to inform him that his tenanted, two-storey property with a garage and storage shed had been destroyed by fire overnight.
“It was discovered that the electrical wiring of the main power supply, which serviced the sub-main in the garage, had been overloaded, and then arced, causing $80,000 worth of fire damage,” she noted.
Related stories:
Insured homeowners to face double blow from levy hikes
