Overloaded wall circuit leads to Paris house fire

PARIS, Tex. (KXII) - A fire severely damaged a Paris home early Thursday morning.

It happened around five at a home on Southwest 4th near Frisco Avenue.

Fire was showing from the eaves and sides of the home as firefighters arrived.

We're told three people including a child were in the home at the time of the fire and made it out safely thanks to a smoke alarm.

Paris Fire Chief Larry Wright says the fire started due to a space heater overloading a wall circuit.

He says those can be a problem for many wall circuits in older homes.

"Amperage draw on the heater is more than circuit and the house can handle and it actually overheats the circuit and if the breaker doesn't pop, it super-heats the plug where its plugged in and actually catches the wall on fire," Chief Wright said.

Wright says dial your space heaters down a few degrees so they aren't on all the time, don't plug multiple appliances into the same circuit and in some cases upgrade your circuits.