Following a fire on Wednesday, Yellowknife’s fire department urged residents to check their vehicle plug-in cords and be careful when plugging multiple vehicle warmers into a single circuit.
At 8:15am on Wednesday morning, fire crews were called to a burning vehicle on Yellowknife’s 50A Avenue. Nobody was injured as a result and the fire was quickly extinguished, the City of Yellowknife said in a statement.
However, the vehicle was damaged and there was some minor damage to the home in front of which it was parked.
The fire department subsequently warned Yellowknifers to check their electrical cords regularly and replace damaged cords, to reduce the risks of “short circuits, added electrical resistance, and accidental fires.”
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In a news release on Friday, the City wrote: “Often multiple heated components, such as battery blankets and interior heaters, are plugged into one block heater cord.
“The Yellowknife Fire Division reminds residents to inspect these electrical routes regularly and to consider the draw that the sum of these components puts on their electrical system.
“If the resistance through the cord is too great, cords can heat up and become hazardous.”
Driving away with a cord left plugged in can also damage the connection, the fire department warned. If an “Arctic snake” ever happens to you, check all cords and connections afterward and replace elements if necessary.
Yellowknife, enduring one of its colder winters of recent years, has spent time back under a series of extreme cold advisories this week – with temperatures dipping below -40C.
