When is hoarding a fire hazard

Not only can a chaotic mess in the home be the cause of a fire, the objects can actually impair any efforts to put the fire out or for evasion. The homeowner may be at risk and have difficulty escaping a home. Walking through the home on a normal basis may seem manageable, but during a fire it will not be so easy. The home will be dark due to the smoke, so visibility will be limited. Without the ability to see, the residents will be unable to properly maneuver around obstacles and escape.

If a fire suddenly occurs in the middle of the night when the residents are asleep, the individuals will be quickly forced into consciousness and must hastily take action, which will be difficult with dark, suffocating conditions.

Not only will visibility be compromised, but maneuverability will be too. An excessive amount of possessions runs the risk of collapsing at any given point in time.

With the addition of flames eating away at support, objects may fall and obstruct any available pathways or even fall on top of and injure people. Flammable objects can also add to the flaming maze and trap individuals. Firefighters are here to help, but these brave men and women cannot properly come to the aid of the distressed if there are complications holding them back. The household clutter can block the residents from exiting and can also block the firefighters from entering a home.

The delay will take precious time away from their efforts to save the victims; time that could be the difference between life and death. If firefighters are able to eventually make it into the home, their lives are now at risk. Being a firefighter is a dangerous career as is and does not need other factors to add to the danger. While in the unfamiliar environment, the firefighters are also blinded by the smoke and piles of objects make it difficult to progress through the residence.

Please enable scripts and reload this page. Turn on more accessible mode. Turn off more accessible mode. Skip Ribbon Commands. Skip to main content. Turn off Animations. Turn on Animations. It looks like your browser does not have JavaScript enabled. Please turn on JavaScript and try again. Page Content. The term hoarding is generally described as obtaining and refusing to throw out a large number of items that would appear to have little or no value to others.

In the home it is described as severe cluttering to the point a space is no longer able to function as a viable living space.