Furnace air filter deemed cause of smoke in Beaverton home | Community Spirit

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- An overheated furnace air filter led to smoke filling a Beaverton home before firefighters found the cause before the home caught fire.

A resident called 911 at 8:24 a.m. Thursday to report her single-wide mobile home was filling with smoke. Firefighters from Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue's Beaverton Station 67 arrived four minutes later at the Pioneer Mobile Park at 13820 SW Electric Street in Beaverton to find the woman evacuated from her home, which was charged with smoke. Firefighters quickly determined the source of the smoke was a furnace air filter that had overheated.

The woman had not changed her air filter in more than a year and the accumulated lint and dirt overheated and started to smolder. Firefighters were able to locate the overheated filter and remove it before it developed into a potentially deadly fire.

"This is a good reminder to replace the air filter in your home regularly," said TVF&R Communications Officer Brian Barker. "We often see damaging fires in the fall when people turn on their heaters for the first time."

Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue would like to remind the public to take the following precautions before they turn on their heating appliances this year:

• Keep combustible items such as boxes, flammable liquids, newspapers, etc., at least 3 feet away from the pilot light of a gas furnace, wood stove, or baseboard heater.
• Check baseboard heaters often and remove objects that have fallen on top or near the heater.
• If you use a fireplace to heat your home have your chimney inspected by a professional and if necessary cleaned before each heating season.
• Inspect and clean your furnace prior to each heating season.

Firefighters also said one of the home's smoke alarms did not sound. Firefighters replaced both of the smoke alarms in the home with new smoke alarms.

"When we respond to incidents like this we frequently check people's homes to ensure that they have working smoke alarms," Barker said. "In this case, the smoke alarms that we used were donated by two Girl Scouts who just last week raised $130 and donated it to TVF&R's Community Assistance Fund to buy smoke alarms. It's great to see their donation used so quickly to help keep our citizens safe."