Firefighters offer cold weather safety tips

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - Orange County Fire Rescue has tips on how to stay safe as the temperatures drop.

People FOX 35 News spoke with aren’t too concerned about the cooler temps.

“It’s just really nice to have a change of seasons and about the only thing I do to prepare is sensitive plants, I just take them in if it says that it is below freezing that night,” Tammy Leary said.

Orange County Fire Rescue had many tips to share about space heater safety.

“The challenge for us is that when the space heaters come out, that there is a greater likelihood for house fires or for burns,” Orange County Fire Rescue Public Information Officer Carrie Proudfit said.

Firefighters said that if you’re going to use a space heater, you should always make sure there is at least three feet of space between it and anything that could catch fire. 

They said you should also never plug a space heater into an extension cord and make sure that the heater has an auto shut-off setting.

Firefighters also had warnings about using your oven to heat your home.

“What we want to remind folks is that it is never, ever a good idea to use your oven to heat your home,” Proudfit said. “That can prove disastrous in the past and we’ve really seen some horrific consequences of that.”

Firefighters said you should also make sure you have a working smoke detector on each floor of your home.