With cold weather comes the risk of people losing power to their homes.

Adair and Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Kempf says one thing that many people keep around to help when the power goes out is a generator. Generators can be used to power individual appliances, or if it’s large enough, it could provide power to a large area of a home. Kempf describes some of the risks when using generators.

“Number one: Don’t use them inside. I mean, you hear every year about somebody that had their generator running in their garage or in a breezeway or something like that, thinking they’d be fine and that carbon monoxide has worked its way into the home. And carbon monoxide can be such a slow killer, where you don’t even know that that’s what has happened to you.”

Kempf says that other ways to stay safe when using generators are to use a sturdy, all-weather power cable that can carry the voltage, plug appliances into the generator directly or ask an electrician for help properly wiring the generator for long term use, and make sure if the generator powers the house, that it doesn’t cause back feed to the power lines.