NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A surge protector is being blamed for a house fire in Clarksville. The fire happened on Tuesday, at the 200 block of Cave St.
Victoria Hancock was home when the blaze broke out. She noticed it while coming back inside after taking one of the dogs out.
"When we come back in I saw smoke coming out of bedroom. There were flames on my side of the bed," Victoria said.
Victoria rushed to get her kids out and said in a matter of 5 minutes the blaze spread to other parts of the home.
"It all started by a faulty surge protector," Hancock said.
"It was overloaded surge protectors. They were daisy chained together. A surge protector plugged into another surge protector," Clarksville Fire Department's Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention Jobe Moore explained.
Jobe Moore said surge protectors aren’t designed to pull that amount of current or amps, they will overheat.
"You want to make sure it’s a UL listed surge protector like it has some sort of rating. You want to plug it directly into the wall receptacle and you want to make sure that all your equipment you’re plugging in doesn’t overload the capacity of the surge protectors," Moore said.
In fact, during the winter season Moore said there’s always an uptick in home fires. Most of the time starting in the kitchen.
"That's the number one fire we have, are kitchen fires," Moore said.
Hancock is grateful her 3 kids made it out, but sadly their two kittens and hamster died.
"It’s honestly really hard to be strong I’m trying my best. What Christmas presents we already bought is burned up," Hancock said.
The Hancock family has launched a GoFundMe to help replace the items destroyed.
The fire department wants to remind people to never plug a space heater into a surge protector. Instead, plug it directly into the wall to prevent a fire.
"You want to make sure it’s a UL listed surge protector like it has some sort of rating. You want to plug it directly into the wall receptacle and you want to make sure that all your equipment you’re plugging in doesn’t overload the capacity of the surge protectors," Moore said.
