Think safety during the holiday season

We are at that time of year again when people have begun or completed the task of decorating for the holiday season. Homes are showing signs of decorations both inside and out with lights, trees, candles and other festive items. While you are decorating the home, please remember to decorate in a safe manner and ensure that your holiday season is enjoyable and full of cheer.

Often through the holiday season emergencies arise from problems associated with these decorations. Many problems could be prevented at the onset. Nationwide, fire departments are called about 250 times per year to respond to fire calls started by Christmas trees. Many of these tree fires are preventable and with a little thought can be avoided. Christmas tree fires can stem from a wide variety of problems. The main concerns are electrical problems and heating sources that are too close to the tree.

Electrical problems come in an assortment of ways: bad cords, broken bulbs, and overloading of circuits. When you are at the beginning process of unpacking all the electrical components such as lights, inspect them prior to placing them on the tree. If you find signs of wear or broken or exposed wires, dispose of them and replace them with new strings of lights. If you notice that there are bulbs that are broken, change them out as soon as possible. The final issue that is most commonly encountered is the overloading of circuits. Most light strands made today have a fuse in them to make sure the lights cannot be over loaded. This is a safety measure devised to keep you and your home safe from disaster down the road. Outlets are only designed to provide a certain amount of energy and when lighting is strung together that increases the amount of energy used at a given outlet. The recommended number of lights strung together is not to exceed three lengths. There are ways that a person could change out the fuses in the light strands and make them work, but I highly discourage any of this. Electrical problems account for almost half of the fires started in Christmas trees.

The second problem is heating sources on or near trees in the home. Heating sources vary from portable indoor space heaters to candles that can be used as decorations on tables. Sometimes these candles are on the trees themselves. When selecting a location for your tree, find an area that will be away from portable heaters and fireplaces. You want to have a safe place that is open where people can move around freely. Problems arise when animals or children playing or running around the house knock into portable heaters that fall on the tree. Fireplaces present another problem. The tree will look very nice close to the fireplace — just as if it were in a painting. Once again, this is not a safe location for such decorations.

The fireplaces will cause real trees to dry out faster. Sometimes items, such as gifts or tree skirts, under the tree are moved too close to the fire and this is when embers can come out of the fireplace and fall onto the items. Candles are a problem for home fires all year long, but during the holiday season, the use of candles increases dramatically. Candles should be kept on a hard surface, preferably metal or some type of ceramic or stone, and away from trees and hanging items, such as window treatments. Many years ago people would use real candles for decorations on Christmas trees. This is a practice that should be discouraged in modern times. Flames would get out of control and then begin to grow in size due to the dry tree and abundance of fuel available. One way to guarantee safety with candles is to only allow them to burn when someone is in the room. If you intend to leave the area, make sure to completely extinguish the candle.

Some steps that can be taken to prevent major problems are to maintain the Christmas tree. If you are using a real tree, make sure to check the water regularly and keep it in a safe location away from heating sources. If using an imitation tree, remember to keep it in a safe location as well. Both trees will need to be checked often to ensure that they are not getting too warm from lighting and always check the wiring before you decorate the tree. Often on imitation trees that are already strung with lights, there may be broken wires from storage the previous year. Make sure to do a thorough inspection of these trees and check that the wires were not cut or caught in moving parts of the tree.

Another device that can prevent major fires and save lives is the use of smoke alarms. These devices are known to save many lives each year and they will continue to save lives many years into the future. Smoke alarms will give you an early warning that there is some type of crisis and may allow you to stop the problem before it grows too big.

The Christmas season is a wonderful time of year and should be spent with family and friends. If you remember to take a few extra minutes and maintain your Christmas trees, this will help to make sure that it stays this way.

John McNutt is chief of the Palmer Fire Department.