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Hamilton Fire says house fires across city increased significantly since 2020

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Hamilton Fire officials say they’re seeing an increase of fires over the past few years, with nearly half of the blazes happening in homes without working smoke alarms.

A fire at a home on Limeridge Road West Monday afternoon is one of the latest blazes in Hamilton to happen.

Hamilton Fire Chief David Cunliffe told CHCH News that the level of structure fires in general has been increasing significantly since 2020.

“We’re really actually trending in the wrong direction,” he said.

Cunliffe says there have been fires all over the city with three wards seeing a consistent rise over the past five years.

“Wards 2, 3 and 4 – we see the majority of fires, actually over 50 per cent of the fires that are happening, structure fires that are happening in the city are happening in those three wards,” he said.

The fire chief also said he was disturbed how in over 50 per cent of fires in residential occupancies, the department was seeing no working smoke alarms.

Councilor of ward 4 Tammy Hwang says she’s not too surprised by these findings.

“A lot of that can be attributed to older housing stock – when you’re trying to buy one of those cheap electrical outlets that expand the use of outlets on a potentially smaller system, you’re really overtaxing what your electrical system is doing,” she said.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada said in a statement to CHCH News, “There are many factors that insurers consider when assessing the risks associated with a particular property.” The statement further reads that the high frequency of fires could potentially influence insurance costs.

Hamilton city officials are reminding residents that working smoke alarms can help save lives, especially moving into the colder months where it becomes important to be aware of potential electrical hazards.

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