As we bring home the Christmas tree this holiday season, the risk of fire should be something everyone keeps in mind this holiday season.
They're beautiful -- a symbol of the season's joys -- but they can trigger a tragedy and fires from holiday decorations result in $13 million in property damage each year.
“The flames spread really fast when those trees catch on fire,” Bossier City Fire Department fire prevention officer Capt. Chris Dison said. Some common sense can help you stay safe. According to the National Fire Protection Association, the first thing you can do while looking for your favorite tree is make sure it's also fresh.
How do you know it's fresh? That's easy. No. 1 is color. It should be vibrant green. This means it hasn't been without water too long and probably wasn't cut that long ago.
Next is a needle check. Are they brittle? Do they pluck out of the branches easy? If they do, this is a sure sign of a dry tree that could most likely be a fire hazard.
And if the needles are shedding like a sheepdog in the heat of summer, it's time to find another perfect tree.
Dison said checking your tree's water helps keep it fresh.
“You want to check the base of the tree and make sure the water is full in the base. Daily. Because those things can absorb a lot of water over time,” Dison said.
After a tree passes the fresh test and you get it home, choose a spot carefully. Just make sure you pick a spot nowhere close to a heat source, such as candles, heat vents, radiators or your fire place. These things will dry out your tree rapidly and that's when you know have a decorated fire hazard.
“The flames will spread quickly. And anything around that tree. The gifts under that tree, or any furniture around it, it's going to get hot enough to catch those things on fire. It's going to spread and cause a lot of damage,” Dison said. Keep open flames away from the tree, at least three feet. He says if a fire does ignite, you can try and extinguish the flames yourself but once those flames start spreading, it's time to get out and call 9-1-1. But what about the heat source on the trees themselves? Dison says LED lights are the safer way to go because they don't give off as much heat. He sheds some additional light on … lights.
“Don't use any damaged lighting. Throw away old damaged lighting. Get new lighting,” Dison said.
Your outlet can be a fire threat as well.
“Use surge protectors. And not overload your outlet with lighting,” Dison said.
Overloaded circuits can cause electrical fires.
And finally, don't forget to turn off those lights when you leave the house or go to bed. Any time the tree is unsupervised.
But it may not be a real tree that you want. You could go artificial.
“The material on an artificial tree are not as likely to catch fire or smolder or anything like that. Not to mention most Christmas trees now have LED lights on them so they burn a little bit cooler. And a lot of these trees have parts built in where if they start to overheat they would trip the breaker or trip the surge protector which I definitely would suggest putting your tree on a surge protector,” said David Harmon, at the Christmas Store at Splash.
The Christmas Tree Association and National Fire Prevention Association offer more tips on Christmas tree safety and fire hazard prevention.