WAYLAND, Mich. — David Miller had his chimney swept in his 124-year-old Wayland farm home, because he didn't want the house to burn down.
"So the tinder box doesn’t go up in flames,” homeowner David Miller said.
The house was his great-grandparents' wedding gift. David plans to live in it the rest of his days. He's currently remodeling the home with the help of his dad.
“To live here eventually. To die here, really,” Miller said.
But David doesn't want to die in that home any time soon, which is why he called Hancock Chimney Service.
“Looks like we had a chimney fire at one point in here,” technician Earl Koorndyk said as he examined Miller's chimney.
Chimneys should be examined yearly. If you use your chimney a lot, it's a good idea to have it swept yearly as well.
“Pretty important. Chimney fires — they get around 2,000 degrees. Pretty scary. Sometimes people know they have one; they’ll have flames shooting out the top. A lot of the time, they don’t even know they had one,” Koorndyk said.
Michigan State Police says people should also do a number of other things to winter-ready their homes. They say cleaning your gutters is important to prevent ice dams that could leave you with a leaky roof and water damage.
It's also important to install battery-operated carbon monoxide detectors. The risk of poisoning goes up when furnaces are being used.
MSP has a full guide to being winter ready here.
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