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There are several maintenance tips you should take to ensure your pellet stove's safety and proper maintenance. You should vacuum the ash pan every week to prevent overflowing and clean the stove and surrounding vents every three to four months. It’s also important to get a professional inspection every year and install a carbon monoxide detector close to your stove. Be sure to dispose of hot ashes in a closed metal container; store it outside, away from the house. Only use the pellets recommended by your stove's manufacturer, and follow any cleaning and maintenance instructions.

Grounding is a great first step to prevent electrical shock, but you can take it further with GFCI outlets and AFCIs (arc fault circuit interrupters). In particular, AFCIs help protect against the type of electrical arcs that cause fires, like if a mouse chews on a wire or your laptop starts overheating at the wall. These are required in some areas of your home.

The most common causes of kitchen fires are leaving cooking food unattended, frying food with excessive amounts of oil, and leaving flammable objects near the stovetop.

After a house fire, you should not reenter your home unless the fire crew has told you it’s safe to do so. In the longer term, you should not attempt to make repairs to the house on your own. Professional crews are trained to clean up after a fire (including smoke and soot damage), dry out any water damage from the firefighter crews, and make the necessary structural, plumbing, and electrical repairs—and this is all likely covered by insurance.