Christmas Time Fire Safety

12/16/2020 (Permalink)

Preventing House fires around the holidays includes simple steps and provides peace of mind.

This blog will give you some information and tips and guidelines on how you can reduce the risk of a house fire around the holidays.

At Christmastime there are many things that increase risks of house fires. Here’s a few…and also prevention tips following each risk listed!

~Increased Baking and Oven Use (Tip: always stay in the kitchen while cooking & baking, and follow instructions on baking temperatures).

~Increased Electrical Use (Tip: If a socket sparks, or if lights flicker on and off, you need to get your wiring checked. Also, Don’t overload your breaker with too many outdated Christmas lights).

~Use of outdated Christmas lights (Tip: Investing in low energy LED lights for your house and tree reduces the amount of electricity used, and also the newer versions of Christmas lights stay cooler than the vintage kind).

~Letting your Christmas Tree dry out! I cringe when I think about us kids leaving the tree up until it was brown and crispy growing up! (Tip: Get the tree in water within an hour of chopping it down, if you bought it on a lot, re-cut the trunk and then place it in water. See that it has water everyday, especially the first three days when it will drink the most!).

~Lighting candles and letting them burn unattended (Tip: when lighting candles always keep a watchful eye on them and be in the same room. If you cannot guarantee supervision of burning candles invest in some LED ones to give you a safe option that doesn’t require constantly being near).

~Not having your smoke detectors up/working/batteries installed (Tip: This is pretty simple, you just need to do the check on your smoke detectors monthly by pressing the test button as instructed. And...okay, so maybe you got up in the middle of the night and put the “battery-dying-beeping-detector” under the couch cushions and threw every blanket you had on top! This morning is a new day, and you need to run to the store and buy those replacement batteries!!).

~Christmas presents piled high! (Tip: Too many presents only happens when they cause a blockage of a entry or exit point in the house, or if the presents are near a fire hazard or fireplace…also, if you can’t get to the base of the tree to water it!).

I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips!

Enjoy this Christmas and may it be magical and joyous for you and your loved ones!