Be Careful Using Kerosene Heaters

I would like to share a story with you, about something that happened about 15 years ago, to someone that I really felt sorry for. This person was a young general contractor and didn't have enough information about using kerosene heaters. So pay attention and we can all learn from his mistakes.

The contractor that I'm talking about was building a two-story room addition, during the rainy season and this particular rainy season, just kept raining. The rain never seen the let up, while he was in the middle of framing the second story room addition.

The contractor covered everything up, every day after he was done working. He would come back the next day, after it rained that night, just to find out that the wind had blew most of the plastic off that was covering the house. The homeowners were still living in the house and doing the best that they could, to deal with the situation that they were in.

One day, the contractor came to the job, only to find out that one of his worst nightmares had just happened. The plastic that was covering the master bedroom, where the homeowners were sleeping that night, was blown off during a heavy wind and rain storm.

The entire master bedroom was water damaged. He removed all of the drywall and carpeting, but still needed to dry the room out. He went down and picked up a kerosene heater and let it run for most of the day. When the homeowners got home, he asked them if they wanted him to shut the heater off or if they wanted to let it run all night.

The homeowners and the contractor agreed that they should let the kerosene heater run until the next morning. This was a big mistake. You should never run a kerosene heater inside of the house, garage, barn or workshop that isn't well ventilated. Burning kerosene gas produces carbon monoxide and carbon monoxide kills people.

When the contractor returned to the job the next morning, the homeowners weren't feeling good and their daughter was sick. It wasn't until years later that the contractor knew what actually happened. He never used the kerosene heater again and started writing articles to inform people about different types of problems that homeowners run into in this.

If you know anyone that uses a kerosene heater, you should inform them about carbon monoxide poisoning and make sure that they don't use this type of heating in unventilated areas.