As winter approaches, Maine families are preparing their homes for heat and facing the safety and financial challenges that come with it.

Carrie Jones

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Coastal Kayaking Tours and Acadia Bike.

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BAR HARBOR—As colder weather approaches and heating sources in Maine homes are used more often, there is often an uptick in house and structure fires.

Also, as the Downeast Wood Bank explains, “November brings attention to the risks associated with carbon monoxide (CO) and the potential of your wood-burning appliances poisoning you without warning. Although the risk from wood heat is low, it is another important reason to take action if an elevated amount of wood smoke enters your home. A functioning flue vents the smoke from your fireplace or wood stove to the outside. A blocked or nonfunctioning flue causes smoke to enter your home and exposes you and others to toxic carbon monoxide in addition to other toxic gases and particulate matter pollution.”

At just around 9:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 30, the Bar Harbor Fire Department responded to a report of smoke at Queen Anne’s Revenge, which is located on Holland Avenue in downtown proper.

The call turned out to be a lot of smoke from a fireplace, in the Black Spot Tavern located in the north building of the property.

“The smoke at Queen Anne’s was from a fireplace damper that was not open, not from a fire within the structure,” Bar Harbor Fire Chief Matt Bartlett explained.

There are tips to decrease your chances of having a fire or smoke in your home. Chief Bartlett points to guidance from NFPA about wood and pellet stove safety.

That guidance includes having stoves and all chimney connections installed by professionals, burning only dry seasoned wood in wood stoves, and only dry seasoned wood pellets in pellet stoves.

Having chimneys and stoves inspected and chimneys cleaned each year is also advised.

It’s also important to allow ashes to cool completely before getting rid of them. Placing them in a covered metal container that is at least 10 feet away from a home or other structure is advised. Anything that can burn should be three feet away from the stoves. Installing carbon monoxide alarms and smoke detectors/alarms is also advised.

Some tips to help reduce risks unrelated to stoves include:

• Always follow manufacturer’s instructions when using a space heater.
• Don’t use appliances to stay warm.
• If using a space heater, make sure it’s not close to anything that can combust easily.
• Don’t plug a space heater into an extension cord. Plug it right into the wall.

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HEATING ASSISTANCE AND ALTERNATIVES

Trying to heat homes and making unsafe choices often occurs when fuel prices increase. In Maine, approximately half of the residents use oil to heat their houses. The cost of oil has increased greatly, impacting town budgets, nonprofits, and home owners.

The Maine Department of Energy Resources reports that the statewide average for heating oil in the state was $6.02 per gallon last Monday, an 81% increase from the cost last year.

For a 275-gallon oil tank, which is what is used in most Maine homes, this means it’s going to cost roughly $740 more to fill that tank and heat a home.

As of October 5, to fill that tank completely costs $1,650, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, a group that helps “collectively represent state governments to secure federal resources.”

Both of Maine’s senators—Susan Collins (R-Maine)and Angus King, Jr.(I-Maine)—wrote a September 22 letter urging President Donald Trump to release the country’s oil reserves to help decrease the costs.

“We write to request that you release home heating oil from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve to protect Mainers from the very high prices that are imposing a difficult financial burden,” the senators wrote.

This week, Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree also urged the Department of Energy (DOE) “to take immediate action to address the rapidly rising cost of heating oil, which has surged around 60 percent since the start of President Trump’s war in Iran.”

Pingree was one of the signers of an October 5 letter, which was led by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representatives Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass).

Maine Governor Janet Mills penned a letter in early October to Maine’s federal senators and representatives about the increased costs of fuel oil.

“I urge you to work with your colleagues to provide a supplemental appropriation for LIHEAP to ensure that Maine people are not left to shoulder the burden of the President’s blunder,” she wrote.

LIHEAP funds are meant to help people pay for cooling and heating of their homes. Last year, it helped roughly 6.7 million. Maine households received more than $42 million last year.

Senator Collins joined other senators in mid-September in a letter urging U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to swiftly release LIHEAP funds.

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Here’s a quick list of some resources. If you know of more, please let us know and we’ll add it to the list.

• Woodbanks.org for general woodbank information.
• MDI Woodbank Facebook page for firewood assistance on MDI and in Swans Island, Frenchboro, Great Cranberry and Little Cranberry Islands.
• Downeast Wood Bank for firewood assistance in Blue Hill, Brooklin, Ellsworth, Sedgwick, Surry, Trenton and Lamoine.
• YWCA of MDI Resource Coordinator Laura Merrill-Bundy’s email is at laura@ywcamdi.org
• Avec Community Action: energy resources in Hancock County.
• Energy efficient ideas and programs and a new energy coaching program (October 13) is available at aclimatetothrive.org/efficiency-coaching.
• Maine Home Energy Assistance Program for state resources and information.
• Winter heating guide from Maine.
• Waldo County Wood Shed
• H.O.M.E. Orland
• Other Maine wood banks https://midcoastwoodbank.org/resources
• Gary Jordan Firewood https://www.facebook.com/garyjordanfirewoodmaine/
• Efficiency Maine is also offering $1,150 instant discounts for heat pump water heaters.

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