Albert Wagner wrote in message
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On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 10:34:12 -0500
Bill Seurer Bill_AT_seurer.net wrote:
snip
Of the fires caused by heating equipment most of the fires and even
more of the deaths are due to space heaters. I've never seen a space
heater that was run by natural gas, most of them are electric.

When I was growing up each room in a house had a valve in the wall for
natural gas space heaters. This was before central or wall heaters
became common. I imagine that many of the old houses still have such
valves and many probably still use natural gas space heaters. I have no
doubt that the causes of fire due to electrical problems, which you
point out, are true. But as a previous poster pointed out: there is no
such thing as an all gas house; Even gas appliances require electricity;
So that even with gas appliances you have the same risk of fire due to
electrical problems; when you add gas appliances to the mix, you add
additional sources of fire on top of electrical sources.

I've had two gas stoves (both in rented apartments) and an aunt had one for
her whole adult life, that had no need of electricity. You lit the burners
and the oven with a pilot light, or a match. No oven light bulb, no clock
on the stove, nothing electrical at all. Not all gas appliances require
electricity. Or at least, not all gas appliances always did.