Holiday Decorating: Fire Stats Edition

12/11/2021 (Permalink)

Here's Why We Take Safety Precautions During the Holidays

Christmas trees aren't the only thing that will make your holiday go up in smoke!

Holiday Decorations: 

That's right, your decorations can be hazardous too! It's averaged, per year, that 790 home structure fires began with decorations in 2015-2019. That's excluding Christmas trees, as most of these fires were started due to decorations being too close to candles. Because of these rising numbers, we are concerned and want to protect our community from being apart of NFPA's statistics.

Candles: 

Yes, our winter-scented candles helps us get in the Christmas spirit, but we also know they can take it away. Though it may be obvious, having candles placed & lit around garland, or whatever decoration, can be very regretting. On average, 20 home candle fires were reported each day between 2015-2019.

60% of those candle fires started when something that could burn, burned by being too close to the candle, such as furniture, mattresses or bedding, curtains, or decorations.

Make sure you place your candles in a safe setting before you light them this month, especially on Christmas Day. Christmas Day is recorded to have the highest amount of candle fires. That's not how we want our family to experience Christmas.

Holiday Cooking:

Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires, as we've cautioned you about before. But of course, with all the families and friends gathering together again, Christmas Day and Christmas Eve follow right behind Thanksgiving for fires caused by cooking.

Decorations pose a problem here too, causing 19% of home cooking fires. That is one of every five homes that was devastated by the damages of fire. The cause? Decorations that are left on or too close to a stove or other cooking equipment. 

Please don't take this information lightly! We provide these statistics from NFPA to better inform our community, as our wish is to keep you from being one of these numbers.

[via nfpa.org]