The following is an excerpt from an item in today's Daily News: Woman dies in Darby fire on her birthday By STEPHANIE FARR, Philadelphia Daily News Twenty-six years to the day after she came into this world, Dominique Gibson left it, when she died yesterday – on her birthday – in a house fire in Darby Borough. Although her home had heat, Police Chief Robert Smythe said investigators believe Gibson was using her stove as a supplemental heat source, and that is what started the blaze. "That's something people do sometimes," he said. "It's a very dangerous habit they have, but they do it." It took firefighters several minutes to battle back the blaze enough to reach Gibson's second-floor apartment. She was found in a kitchen hallway. She was pronounced dead at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital at 4:20 a.m., Smythe said.
____________________________________ This is "close (enough) to home" because Dominique -- a lovely young woman in every sense -- was the secretary at The Second Mile Center, our popular local thrift shop. Her co-workers and managers are devastated, as you can imagine. Beyond this, the article shows that you should not try to get extra heat from anything not specifically designed for space heating, or not up to modern standards. Dominique was apparently trying to use her stove for this purpose. Kerosene heaters are also very dangerous, as are electric units with exposed heating coils. The safest devices, should you believe one is necessary, are sealed oil-filled electric radiators with build-in temperature controls. Sweaters and heavy blankets are probably better, considering that extreme cold doesn’t occur too often in the Philadelphia area and doesn’t tend to last too long when it comes. The separate coverage in the Inquirer didn't suggest the cause of the fire but did note that she apparently died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Neither article indicated whether the building or apartment had smoke or carbon monoxide detectors. These are required in rental properties in Philadelphia. If you own your own home, they're not required, but they're a wise precaution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Krigman KRF Management, ICON/Information Concepts Inc 211 S 45th St, Philadelphia PA 19104-2918 215-349-6500, fax 215-349-6502 krf...@aol.com or al.krig...@krf.icodat.com