Electrical house fires increase during the winter months and it’s taking a toll on disaster response.

Since Nov. 1 the Midland Empire Chapter of the American Red Cross has been called out to assist 24 families around its 18 county jurisdiction that have been displaced from their homes because of a house fire.

“We think space heaters have certainly played a big impact,” said Karla Long, Director of Emergency Services. “As the weather gets colder we all start using a little bit of an alternate heat source and plugging in space heaters which overloads your circuits or not giving them the space they need which can start a fire.”

So far this year the St. Joseph Fire Department has responded to 130 building fires. There were 148 reported in 2013  Fire Inspector Steven Henrichson said that number is close to the average.

“It’s just that time of year where we get a bunch of them put together” said Henrichson. “We go for a couple of months where we might have one or two and then we’ll have five or six in a row.”

He said there has been an increase in electrical fires.

“Especially in the older houses that have outdated electrical wiring,” said Henrichson. “We’re running four or five different computers, video game systems, TVs high-definition all electrical and then on top of that you add space heaters and it just overwhelms the capacity of the old systems.”

He said a lot of the house fires that have occurred recently are because of overloaded electrical systems.  He suggests having an electrician check out your wiring if you have an older home with electrical problems.

“Make sure that your house if capable of handling it,” said Henrichson. “If you’re popping breakers one after another and having to reset them constantly that’s the first sign of something wrong and if you have a breaker that pops and you can’t reset it then you need to have it checked out really soon because then something has gone wrong in the electrical system.”

Another issue with electrical fires is where they start.

“They’re up in the attics and the smoke detectors won’t work until the smoke gets down low enough to get to them,” said Henrichson. “Until it almost falls through the ceiling occupants don’t know it’s there.”

Because there have been so many house fires so close together this year the Red Cross has seen that impact its disaster response budget.

“On average it takes $2,000 to $2,500 of Red Cross funds to help this family start over again and when you multiple that by 24 families since the first of November the math shows us that it’s really putting a big strain on our budget,” said Long.

The Red Cross is asking for monetary donations to continue to assist families with disaster relief.

“It’s going to be very hard but we’ll continue to be there,” said Long. “We are America’s disaster relief charity and that’s what we do so we will scrimp and save everywhere else so that we can continue to support the families.”

For more information on Red Cross programs or services or to make a donation Long said to contact the Red Cross at (816) 232-8439.