Fire Safety Tips

Fires can be prevented. A few easy steps can save your life!

Trees

• When buying a live tree, check for freshness – green needles, trunk sticky with resin, and few lost needles when tapped on the ground.
• Never place a fresh Christmas tree next to a heat source. Heat dries out trees and makes them easier to catch on fire.
• Keep your tree stand filled with water at all times.
• When the tree gets dry, get rid of it. Look for a recycling center near you.
• Never burn a Christmas tree or its branches in a fireplace or wood stove.
• When buying an artificial tree, look for the label “Fire Resistant” or “Flame Retardant.”

Lights, candles, and other decorations

• Use only Underwriters Laboratories- or Intertek- (ETL) listed holiday lights.
• Check lights each year. Replace those with frayed or heavily kinked wires, gaps in insulation, or cracked sockets.
• When decorating outside, use only lights labeled for outdoor use.
• Do not link more than three strings of lights.
• Turn off holiday lights when you leave your home or go to bed.
• Use sturdy candle holders and place them where they’re unlikely to be knocked over.
• Blow out candles before you leave your home or go to bed.
• Do not burn wrapping paper in the fireplace.

Holiday Entertaining

• When cooking for guests, stay in the kitchen and keep an eye on the stove.
• If you or your guests smoke, do it outside.
• Provide deep ashtrays for smokers. Before dumping ashes in the trash, soak them in water.
• After a party, check for ashes and butts on the floor and seat cushions where people were smoking.

Holiday Fire Facts

• Fire deaths are highest in the winter months.
• During the holiday season each year, fires injure about 2,600 people.
• Christmas trees are associated with 210 fires each year, resulting in 24 deaths, 27 injuries, and about $13 million in property losses.
• Holiday and other decorative lights cause about 240 fires each year. One fifth of these fires start in Christmas trees.
• Christmas Day is the peak day of the year for home candle fires.