Reducing Holiday Fire Hazards

Fire Safety Tips: Reducing Holiday Fire Hazards

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.”

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.

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.

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.