Cold weather poses a major threat to pipes which are located in uninsulated or unheated rooms and in older houses and which homeowners only too often tend to thaw with methods that cause a fire hazard.

In the extreme cold temperatures of this winter, a lot of homeowners have found themselves in an uncomfortable situation where frozen pipes have led to an interruption in their water supply and interference in their daily lives.

“Pipes mostly freeze in rooms which are not heated or have insufficiently been insulated as well as in country houses and sauna rooms, and in bathrooms located in the external wall. This is often due to construction faults, or ageing or poor installation of the insulation around the pipeline,” Kristel Kobi, Head of Property Damage at Seesam, explained the reasons behind freezing pipes.

Emergencies caused by carelessness in the forefront

According to the insurer, in such situations a lot of homeowners unleash their inner MacGyver and use readily available means such as fan heaters, hair dryers, radiators and blowtorches.

The most dangerous of the aforementioned is undoubtedly open flame which may break a frozen pipe and also set fire to the house fast. Although in domestic settings an industrial hair dryer is also used for thawing pipes, the temperature of the tool is so high that its careless use could result in setting fire to the wooden façade from where fire spreads under the boarding and floors pretty fast. It could only be imagined what would happen in such a situation to an older house insulated with sawdust.

“The fact to be also taken into account is that if a heat-emitting device is used upon thawing, the heat will be transferred along the metal and the fire may start somewhere else. We have had situations where the construction foam used around pipes and the inserted ceilings in contact with which the heated pipes are located have caught fire,” Kobi said.

The representative of Seesam also provides an example of damage where the houseowner started to thaw a frozen pipe in the attic with a small fan heater that seemed safe. As the metal parts inside the fan heater heated up to high temperatures, there was a lot of dust and wool fluffs flying about in the air, which came into contact with hot details and then flew again back to the dusty and highly flammable environment in the course of the operation of the fan heater, this resulted in a fire.

The main problem behind domestic thawing tools as seen by the insurer is carelessness.

“A person starts the thawing process of pipes and then goes to do other things at the same time. A hair dryer or fan heater may at the same time overheat and set fire to the wall and, in the worst event, the fire will already spread too far before the homeowner notices anything and manages to limit the fire,” warned Kobi.

The safest method is to warm up pipes with heating cables or steam, and the best option is to call specialists who perform corresponding work. A domestic fan heater can be useful, but in such an event the little assistant should not be left unattended even for a moment, the operational reliability of the fan heater must have been verified and, as an additional security measure, a fire extinguisher could also be within reach.

“If the houseowner is aware of the problem of freezing pipes, they must observe the weather forecast, leave the tap open enough to ensure dripping when it gets cold and not clear the snow from above pipes. The last one is namely a natural warm keeper. It is certainly not wise to start waiting for the next winter and cold temperatures, but instead start insulating the pipes when it gets warmer,” the insurer recommended.