Use Fire Safety during the Holidays The holiday season brings cheer and festivities

to most individuals in the United States. Fancy

parties and gathering with family are a hallmark

of the latter part of every year.

Beware in the Holiday Season But the holiday season is also the time of fire

danger. Every year around the holiday’s the

number of reported residential and commercial

fires see a spike in volume.

This is seen by many to be due to the increase

risk factors associated with the decorations and

trimmings used to adorn homes and businesses

during the holiday season. Holiday lights and garlands combined with the ever present pine Christmas

trees to form a combustible mixture of holiday splendor.

Holiday decorations bring happiness to most as they are an indication of the festive time of year and

inspire all with their ornamental beauty. The glimmering lights hold within their power more than the

distribution of joy, however, as high volt electrical currents surge through them and heat them to the

potential ignition temperatures of their surrounding materials.

The National Fire Protection Association has found that this combination of flammable materials and

heated decorations such as lights on a Christmas tree has accounted for an average of almost four

hundred house fires every year.

Residential Fire Damage The cost of these holiday house fires has the potential to

reach over twenty five million dollars in property damage

every year and results in the deaths of an average of twenty

one persons annually. Two hundred and forty of those fires

involved Christmas trees, making the most likely ignition point

for destructive home fires incurred over the holidays to come

from the beloved and recognized symbol of Christmas.

Learning how to mitigate the risk posed by holiday

decorations like lights and the Christmas tree can help a family

be save this holiday season and avoid the tragedy of a

destructive home fire and its resultant residential fire repair

costs. Being armed with knowledge is the best way for a

family and for an individual to avoid these holiday risks.

Threats of Candles The first thing to remember is that a hydrated tree is a safe tree. Watering Christmas trees regularly will

decrease the chances that the trees will combust in flame due to a short in the decorative lights or

candles.

It should here be noted that, while the use of candles is a longstanding tradition in many American

households, the use of open flame candles is strongly advised against because of the extreme danger

they pose to a home. Open flame candles can be replaced by safer electrically or battery powered

replica candles that greatly reduce the risk of fire to a home.

Selecting a tree for purchase also plays into this as buy a dead or dried tree will mean that the danger of

fire is literally being brought into the home. Watering a home’s Christmas tree will ensure that the

needles of the pine tree are saturated in water and will therefore be less likely to burn that will

extremely flammable dried pine needles.

Keeping a tree watered and hydrated may be the single most important way for a family to avoid a

disastrous home fire this holiday season.

Photo Credit: Tom.Bricker, Seyed Mostafa Zamani