Christmas Fire Safety Tips: How to Keep Your Home Safe This Holiday Season

A fire in your home is sure to spoil the festive fun this Christmas! Here are our top tips for having a Christmas to remember with your loved ones, for all the right reasons!

Your Christmas Tree

A real Christmas tree is special, but did you know a dry tree can flashover in just 10 seconds?

What to do:

• Water it every day.
• When considering where to place your tree, the aesthetics are important but make sure to include locations of candles, open fires, and radiators/heaters.
• Only ever use LED lights on your tree, they run cooler than alternatives and reduce the risk of fire drastically.

Electrics

We’ve all seen the extension lead cable that’s plugged into another and is running eight devices from a single socket. Overloading extension leads at Christmas is a major contributor to fires over the festive period.

What to do:

• A visual inspection of the cables. Looking for any nicks or exposed cable.
• Do not leave lights and electricals on when you leave the house or go to bed.

Candles

LED candles are a powerful alternative as there is far less risk with them and no loss of ambience over a real candle.

However, real candles are part of the season, so we must use them safely:

• Keep them away from decorations.
• Place them on a flat stable surface.
•           Never leave a candle burning in a room you are not in.

Cooking

Cooking Christmas dinner is a labour of love. Especially on a day of distractions. Whether it’s just popping in and out watching the kids open presents, or that new Christmas special you’ve been waiting for, it’s easy to loose focus.

What to do:

• Be conscious of those distractions and don’t leave cooking unattended. The risk of this increases significantly when drinking alcohol.

Escape

The most important thing you can do every week is to test your smoke alarms and do extra checks before Christmas day!

You may have guests, make sure everyone is orientated with their surroundings. They should know the quickest way out, where keys are kept if needed, and which windows are locked.

These are the top tips of fire safety from a trained firefighter. What tips do you have to share?

If you ever come across a fire in your home, raise the alarm to everyone in the house, exit safely and quickly, and call 999 immediately.