Find local pros for your project
Tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll show you pros right for the job, with prices.
Staying safe for the holidays: Sean Lowe’s fire prevention check.
Updated
By David Steckel, Home Expert
Sean Lowe and his wife, Catherine, famously have their hands full. The pair met on ABC’s The Bachelor in 2013 and have charmed the Internet ever since with peeks into their lighthearted, chaotic family life with three young children and an energetic Bullmastiff puppy, Gus. So when they added “moving to a new house” to their to-do list earlier this year, we wanted to make sure that crucial fire prevention didn’t get lost in the shuffle.
Table of Contents
At Thumbtack, we recently found that 75% of people know someone who has experienced a house fire and 37% have experienced one themselves, the majority of which occurred over the holiday season. Yet most homeowners don’t know that the holidays are the most common time for house fires — and the Lowes were no exception.
“I had no idea what kind of risks our new house could have for a fire, and hadn’t thought about how things like holiday lights, gas fireplaces, and Christmas trees can be potential hazards,” said Sean. “We recently moved into a new home in Dallas, and apart from our home inspection, it was easy to assume that the previous owners were on top of home maintenance.”
Preparing for the holidays with a home check.
I traveled down to the Lowes’ new Dallas home to walk Sean through our new “Holiday Fire Prevention Checklist.” The checklist highlights the top projects homeowners should tackle before the holidays to most effectively minimize their fire risk, such as testing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, deep cleaning ovens, and doing an electrical check.
“Working with Thumbtack’s home expert to understand potential fire risks year-round was really eye-opening, and the personalized list of projects to tackle helped me breathe a real sigh of relief going into the holidays,” said Sean. “We were able to ensure all of our smoke detectors were in working order, get direction on when our gas fireplaces would need to be serviced next, and do an electrical check.”
During the home check, Sean learned that they’d had a small electrical surge in one of their outdoor outlets — unbeknownst to them — which caused the outlet to physically burn. When we investigated, we found evidence of an electrical short circuit (identified by the black, burnt outlet) and went to check the breaker. What we learned: the house had a 15 amp breaker where there should have been a 20 amp breaker for the load, and there was no GFCI outlet that would have stopped the short from happening in the first place.
“Luckily, the breaker did its job and no actual fire started, but we were truly taken aback,” said Sean. “We hired a Thumbtack electrician who came by the very next day to replace and wire the outlet properly, and ensure we weren’t at risk for a future fire.”
It’s not too late to take advantage of our checklist and ensure peace of mind this season.