Winter Fire Safety

11/5/2021 (Permalink)

According to the American Red Cross, winter holiday fires claim more than 500 lives each year and cause approximately $554 million in property damage. We put together some essential winter holiday fire safety tips to help reduce those numbers. Follow these suggestions from our fire restoration experts, and keep your family, home, pets and belongings safe this holiday season and throughout the New Year.

WINTER FIRE CAUSES

During the winter and all through the holidays, there are several seasonal factors that can increase the risk of fire in your home. These factors range from increased fireplace and candle usage to Christmas tree fire hazards. As beautiful as these light touches may be, it is important to keep certain holiday fire safety tips in mind. General holiday fire safety includes:

• Never leave a room when a candle is burning. Candle fires are four times more likely to occur during the holidays.
• Never burn wrapping paper, garbage or other debris in your fireplace.
• Always supervise children around fireplaces, wood burning stoves and any open flames, even candles.
• Check your space heater before using it. If it is not operating correctly or the cord is damaged in any way, don't use it.
• Test every smoke detector in the house and make sure all of them have charged batteries. A September 2015 report by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) stated that the death rate per 100 reported home fires was more than twice as high in homes that did not have any working smoke alarms compared to the rate in homes with working smoke alarms (1.18 deaths vs. 0.53 deaths per 100 fires).