12 Safety Tips to Prevent Christmas Tree Fires

No one wants to think of a beautiful Christmas tree as rocket fuel. The threat to life and potential injury together with damages to home and belonging are chilling thoughts. Even more stressful, assuming no one is injured is the aftermath of a fire.

Fire clean-up is dangerous. Toxic residuals in the air and on surfaces pose a silent threat. Soot, ash and smoke from fire are laced with contaminates dangerous to your health. The smell of smoke odour can linger and become unbearable.

Smoke and fire restoration needs to be done by professionals who are equipped with specialized protective gear and equipment. If called quickly, restoration technicians will mitigate and eliminate the smoke and ash quickly to prevent further damages to your property and to safely restore your home to good health.

Home safety over the holiday season is everyone’s concern. It’s not rocket science. It’s being mindful of a few things to do and to take action on them.

Here are twelve tips to keep you and your family safe while enjoying your beautiful Christmas tree:

Whether you choose a real tree or a store-bought artificial Christmas tree, both involve electric lights. Never string more than 3 strands of indoor tree lights together. If you need more lights plug another separate string into another separate electrical outlet. Even some pre-lit artificial trees have been recalled due to sparking.

Plug your lights into electric power bars with easily accessible on/off switches rather than plugging directly into electrical wall outlets.

If some lights don’t work on a string don’t use it. Just throw it away and replace it with a new string.

Always turn off the lights on a tree before going to bed or leaving your home.

All trees dry-up. Even artificial trees get old and dry-out. Bounce the trunk-end of the fresh-cut -tree on the ground a couple of times to shake it up and do the same for the artificial tree. If a noticeable number of needles fall off then it’s not safe to use.

Keep your tree 3 feet away from your fireplace and heaters. Make certain your fire screen prevents any small sparks from escaping.

Never let your tree block an exit. Not even partially. You need a minimum clear width of 32 inches as a means of escape in case of fire.

Although it’s tempting to have scented and unscented candles near your Christmas tree surround, just don’t do it. Keep all candles 3 feet away from your tree or use battery lit artificial candles with the flickering lit wick. They look amazingly realistic and even have a waxy feel to them.

Water the tree everyday. Cut the bottom limbs off the tree to facilitate watering it. Sweep away any loose needles that have fallen, as they are dry and flammable.