LEWISTON – The cost of heating oil this year is more than discouraging. Fire officials say it can also be dangerous.

The death of a 7-year-old boy who was burned while adding fuel to a woodstove in Turner on Sunday and a slew of less severe accidents has prompted fire safety experts to issue a list of warnings.

Since the start of cold weather, fire officials have seen an increase in homeowners and landlords using alternative forms of heating to offset the cost of oil.

Consequences, they say, could spell disaster.

“Every form of heating comes with its own set of problems,” said Lewiston fire Inspector Paul Ouellette.

Ouellette and Auburn fire investigator Lt. Gary Simard said they have seen a wide array of methods used locally to heat homes – kerosene heaters inside houses with no windows open for ventilation, pellet heaters, electric heaters and ovens turned on with burners blazing.

“Some of the landlords are unwilling or unable to pay the high price of oil,” Simard said. “They’re using dangerous practices, instead.”

In Lewiston, fire officials found one home where an oven and stove burners were kept on to heat the home. Mounds of trash on either side of the stove would likely have caught fire if the situation wasn’t discovered in time.

Simard said he has learned of many people who have resorted to electric space heaters to warm entire homes.

“What they don’t know is that the older buildings may not be able to handle that electrical supply,” he said. “They might be heating wires in the wall and not know it.”

In Lewiston, a woman fell asleep with a kerosene heater burning and woke up to find it in flames.

“She picked it up and carried it outside,” Ouellette said. “She threw the heater into the back yard and suffered some burns.”

In some cases, landlords have stopped paying for oil, leaving tenants to fend for themselves. In Auburn this season, the fire department has already received nearly two dozen calls from people who report being left without heat. One such report involved a family with two babies trying to cope without heat in 20 degree weather.

A similar number of “no heat” calls has been reported in Lewiston.

Tenants and homeowners leave heaters burning to warm the house while they are away, a practice that can also lead to trouble.

“Whatever you’re using, you’ve got to be there to attend to it,” Simard said.

With snowstorms coming almost on a weekly basis, fire officials worry about safe exits out of homes and buildings.

“I took a drive through the city and almost every house I saw had one door shoveled and one door that was not,” Ouellette said.

Residents can run into problems if a fire starts near the door that offers a safe exit, Ouellette said. And during the winter, many windows have been covered with plastic to keep cold air out, which can further trap people inside.

Hoping to avoid further tragedies, Ouellette and Simard have offered the following list of winter safety tips:

• Be sure furnaces are installed properly;

• Have the chimney inspected and cleaned every year;

• Never use flammable liquids to start a fire;

• Burn wood stoves hot twice a day for 15-30 minutes to reduce creosote buildup;

• Make sure fire in a fireplace is out before retiring for the night;

• Never close the fireplace damper with hot ashes still inside;

• Never discard hot ashes inside the home;

• keep heating appliances 3 feet from any combustible material;

• Turn off portable heaters when leaving the room;

• Never refuel heaters inside the home;

• Never refuel a heater or appliance that has just been shut down;

• Never use an unvented kerosene heater inside the home;

• Never use a gas engine, appliance or equipment in the home or attached garage;

• Make sure generators are appropriately connected to electrical equipment;

• Never thaw out frozen water pipes with a blow torch or open flame device;

• Clear snow from all doors and select windows leading outside;

• Make sure smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms are in working order;

• Don’t wear loose clothing when cooking or using candles;

• Don’t smoke when using bottled oxygen or when alternate forms of oxygen are present.