January 8, 1980

Seminar on wood heating planned

       A free seminar on the use of wood burning stoves, fireplaces, chain saws, and related equipment will be held Saturday at West Grove Elementary School. The seminar will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. West Grove is located on Smith Valley Road, just east of State Road 37 and just west of Smith Valley. The meeting is sponsored as a public service by the, White River Township Volunteer Fire Department in cooperation with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the Cooperative Extension Service, and wood burning equipment dealers. For more information, call the White River fire station, 888-8337. Seminar chairman Howard Bennis of the fire department said the meeting will feature a talk by Mike Hayes, a wood heating expert with the Division of Natural Resources. Other portions of the seminar will include demonstrations and displays by local wood burning stove and fireplace dealers; log splitting and chain saw operation demonstrations; a presentation by a chimney sweep; a display by the Center Grove High School industrial arts class; and handing out of wood burning literature from the Cooperative Extension Service at Purdue University and fire prevention literature. Refreshments will be available during the seminar. Bennis said the increased use of wood heating has brought the need for information about proper installation and use of the equipment, fire prevention techniques, maintenance of fire places, and relative devices, and warnings about improper techniques such as the use of flammable liquids to start fires. He said there was a 71 percent increase from 1978 to 1979 of fire caused by improper use, installation or maintenance of wood burning equipment. There also have been problems with poor handling of chain saws. Bennis recalled a recent incident in White River Township where “a lady about blew herself away” by starting a fire with a flammable liquid and another where a man barely escaped serious injury from a chain saw.  See a related story and photo HERE.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

 

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