With the cost of home heating fuel expected to reach record highs this winter, more people will be turning to alternatives to save money. Fireplaces and woodstoves are predicted to make a big resurgence. With the increase in woodstove use comes a corresponding increase in risk of home fires. Here are a few tips for safer woodstove use.

LOSS PREVENTION

Ice dams are formed when a gutter system becomes filled with moisture that freezes and forms a "dam" on the eave of the roof. A visible sign is those attractive icicles that form along the edges of your roof. When snow builds up on the roof then melts and refreezes at the roof's edge, you get ice dams.

Odorless, tasteless, invisible carbon monoxide (CO) is a deadly threat. Although it results in hundreds of fatalities every year, its causes and detection methods remain a mystery to most people. Build-ups resulting from incomplete combustion of any flame-fueled, i.e., non-electric, device combined with poor ventilation can produce tragic results especially at night when every one in the home is asleep. Here's some information you can use to protect yourself and your family.

NEW DIRECTION FOR MASS DRIVERS!

Starting April 1, Massachusetts auto insurance undergoes a major change. Individual insurers, including the companies we represent, will price auto policies with their own rates, approved by the state insurance commissioner. Previously, the state set rates that were the same for all companies. The insurance commissioner calls the change "managed competition."

Controlled competition

“Managed competition” is controlled competition. It is designed to open up rate and benefits competition among insurers while maintaining certain safeguards for drivers. The insurance commissioner maintains authority to reject rates deemed unfairly high and underwriting rules considered discriminatory.