Red Cross Shares Safety Tips as Frigid Temps Expected Tonight

The American Red Cross has some safety tips for everyone as the weather gets downright frigid Thursday night.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature may drop as low as -10 degrees with the wind chill and around -13 degrees on Friday.

• Never use a stove or oven to heat your home.
• If you are using a space heater, place it on a level, hard surface and keep anything flammable at least 3 feet away – things such as paper, clothing, bedding, curtains or rugs. Turn off space heaters and make sure fireplace embers are out before leaving the room or going to bed.
• If you are using a fireplace, use a glass or metal fire screen large enough to catch sparks and rolling logs.
• Use generators correctly – never operate a generator inside the home, including in the basement or garage.
• Don’t hook a generator up to the home’s wiring. The safest thing to do is to connect the equipment you want to power directly to the outlets on the generator.
• And when shoveling out the car, free the exhaust pipe before turning it on. Carbon monoxide kills.