Keeping Safe While Keeping Warm

1/23/2013 (Updated 6:52:10 PM)

If you're cranking up the heat to battle the cold, make sure you're not also increasing your risk of fire.

Officials say to make sure you have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and keep combustibles like curtains and laundry away from heaters.

Run your generator outside, downwind of structures never indoors.

"It's very difficult to fight fires in these temperatures, and we do tend to see a spike in fires when we have the colder temperatures because of furnaces working harder, people are running extra heat-- things like that," said Brett Challis, Director of Broome County Emergency Services.

Chellis also says to keep your chimney clean and when you dispose of ashes, put them in a metal container with a lid and place it outside.