Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

FINDING THE SOURCE – Firefighters work on the source of Tuesday’s blaze on Lambert Street – the exterior wall dryer ducting. Lint fires are very common across Canada, says the city’s fire chief.

Blaze began in dryer ducting, fire chief says

A build-up of lint led to a small fire in the exterior side wall of a downtown house on Tuesday afternoon.

By Whitehorse Star on April 22, 2015

A build-up of lint led to a small fire in the exterior side wall of a downtown house on Tuesday afternoon.

The Whitehorse Fire Department was called to the Lambert Street home at 2:23 p.m. after residents noticed arcing, or sparking, when they removed a plug from the wall and saw smoke in the basement.

“It was kind of an interesting one in the sense that it was quite well-hidden, so it took us a little bit of hunting around before we were able to locate where the actual fire was,” fire chief Kevin Lyslo said late this morning.

It was buried in the dryer ducting, he said.

Fire crews were on the scene for about an hour. There wasn’t significant damage to the home, with no smoke damage inside.

“People need to clean their dryer ducting, right from the exterior of the house all the way back into their dryers,” Lyslo said. “That whole path that the hot air flows can accumulate lint.”

He said lint fires are very common across Canada.

Comments (4)

Up 18 Down 1

sandbox monitor on Apr 27, 2015 at 11:49 am

Do you brush your own teeth? Clean your own toilet? Sweep your own floor? Guess what renter, your dryer duct is your responsibility as well and it is no big deal. Get out the vacuum and do it yourself. What do you think? You're living at the Pan Pacific with valet service for your 40 bucks a day or whatever your rent is?

Up 18 Down 1

Just Say'in on Apr 24, 2015 at 7:17 pm

Where did that lint come from? Your clothes. How about you clean it. Do some maintenance and quit blaming everyone else.

Up 4 Down 21

Dirty Laundry on Apr 22, 2015 at 10:17 pm

Landlords should be 100% accountable for any damage or loss of life caused by these types of preventable fires. But you ever heard of a landlord cleaning dryer vents? Yeah, me either.

Up 3 Down 18

Maggie on Apr 22, 2015 at 4:47 pm

These are housing apartments so it's hard to do anything. Maybe now that this has happened it will make them come out and clean this stuff.

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