The Christmas decorations are for sale at Barry’s, Christmas lights are appearing on homes and let’s face it the flyers are inundated with advertising, this is all telling us that Christmas season is fast approaching. Christmas always brings about a number of concerns with respect to fire safety, one item that comes to mind is that this is the only time of the year that we bring dry dead trees in our homes and wrap them with electrical lights. Sorry to sound like Ebenezer Scrooge on this one folks but it’s true. Natural Christmas trees are a real fire hazard, especially when they get dried out. If you doubt this in any way I would suggest that you check out www.youtube.com and search “Christmas Tree Fire”, feel free to choose any of the almost 2,000 videos you like, possibly even compare between videos. Christmas trees are extremely combustible and represent a significant fuel load. If you do choose to have a natural Christmas tree then special attention is required, first the tree must be removed from the home when it becomes dried out. There are no exceptions to this rule, a dried Christmas tree in a home is a disaster waiting to happen, the slightest spark could result in a fire that rolls across your ceiling in seconds. The best way to avoid a tree from drying out is to make sure there is always water in the base and more importantly, don’t bring it into the house too early. Common sense dictates that a cut tree can not last more than two weeks in a home, even then there are many variables that can lead to the tree drying out quicker so once the needles start to fall then it’s time for the tree to go out.
Another decoration that often makes me cringe are the natural pine table settings with candles set in the middle. If you do choose to have one of these, please don’t light the candles. This leads to candles in general, in truth candles are responsible for more house fires each year than Christmas trees ever will be. According to Ontario Fire Marshal statistics; candles were the ignition source for 3% of all house fires in
