Dryer Fires: Improving Clothes Dryer Safety
Authors
Kyle David Bonaccorso, Mariah Genevieve Eldredge, Scott F. Gould, Cameron Scott Mills
Sponsor
United States Consumer Product Safety Commission
Advisors
Creighton R. Peet, Marsha W. Rolle
Term
October – December 2012
Project Outcomes
Abstract
Electric clothes dryers are responsible for approximately 4600 fire incidents annually. This project with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission targeted reducing the number of clothes dryer fire incidents by amending the voluntary safety standard, UL 2158, Electric Clothes Dryers. We identified the major contributing factors to electric clothes dryer fires, primarily through archival research and interviews, and designed a new performance test to be added to UL 2158 to address one of the major causes of such fires.