Power strips are designed for low-wattage devices like lamps, phone chargers, or TVs. Space heaters, however, pull a large amount of electricity to generate heat quickly. Plugging one into a power strip can overwhelm it, leading to overheating, melted plastic, fused wires, and in many cases, fire.
This isn’t theoretical. In Ohio, a space heater plugged into a power strip sparked a blaze that consumed a home in minutes—the couch ignited first, and the fire spread rapidly.
