flammable items on electric stove
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:22 am
If a stove was not gas, would it still be cited under hazards other if paper ect. Was located on stove?
This is a great question because it brings up a fact I must not have made clear: REAC is now saying that inspectors should not cite resident owned items that are stored on or in the stove as Flammable Materials Improperly Stored. They should instead cite this under Hazards/Other which is non-scoring –
no points are deducted.
This would apply whether the stove is electric or gas – either way.
On the other hand – you and I as housing professionals who are concerned with the safety of residents, the safety of our employees, and the viability of the housing asset… we do need to recognize that something on an electric stove is almost as likely to cause a fire as something on a gas stove. When I see
residents storing items on a stove, I tell them that I worry or their safety, that I’ve seen more than one apartment catch on fire, and I sincerely wish that - for their own safety – they would not do this.
Ultimately, there are things we can control and things we cannot control. I think HUD was acknowledging this when they started instructing inspectors to put this under the non-scoring Hazard/Other. (Non scoring, like Inoperable Smoke Detectors.)
And, oh, do I realize this opens a whole can of worms, if we start thinking about what we can and cannot control.