Holiday Fire Safety Tips

Sanford, FL -Seminole County Fire Department (SCFD) joins efforts with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) to provide Holiday Decorating Fire Safety Tips. Decorating homes and businesses is a long-standing tradition around the holiday season. Unfortunately, these same decorations may increase your chances of fire. Based on data from the NFPA and the USFA, an estimated 250 home fires involving Christmas trees and another 170 home fires involving holiday lights and other decorative lighting occur each year. Together, these fires resulted in 21 deaths and 43 injuries.

Following a few simple fire safety tips can keep the ever popular Christmas tree, electric lights, and candles from creating a tragedy. Help ensure that you have a fire safe holiday season.

Christmas Trees
What's a traditional Christmas morning scene without a beautifully decorated tree? If your household includes a natural tree in its festivities, take to heart the sales person's suggestion - “Keep the tree watered.”

Christmas trees account for hundreds of fires annually. Typically, shorts in electrical lights or open flames from candles, lighters or matches start tree fires. Well-watered trees are not a problem. A dry and neglected tree can be.

Selecting a Tree for the Holidays
Needles on fresh trees should be green and hard to pull back from the branches, and the needles should not break if the tree has been freshly cut. The trunk should be sticky to the touch. Old trees can be identified by bouncing the tree trunk on the ground. If many needles fall off, the tree has been cut for too long and, has probably dried out, and is a fire hazard.

Caring for Your Tree
Do not place your tree close to a heat source, including a fireplace or heat vent. The heat will dry out the tree, causing it to be more easily ignited by heat, flame or sparks. Be careful not to drop or flick cigarette ashes near a tree. Do not put your live tree up too early or leave it up for longer than two weeks. Keep the tree stand filled with water at all times.

Disposing of Your Tree
Never put tree branches or needles in a fireplace or wood-burning stove. When the tree becomes dry, discard it promptly. The best way to dispose of your tree is by taking it to a recycling center or having it hauled away by a community pick-up service.

Holiday Lights
Maintain Your Holiday Lights
Inspect holiday lights each year for frayed wires, bare spots, gaps in the insulation, broken or cracked sockets, and excessive kinking or wear before putting them up. Use only lighting listed by an approved testing laboratory.

Do Not Overload Electrical Outlets
Do not link more than three light strands, unless the directions indicate it is safe. Connect strings of lights to an extension cord before plugging the cord into the outlet. Make sure to periodically check the wires - they should not be warm to the touch.
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Candle Care
Avoid Using Lit Candles
If you do use lit candles, make sure they are in stable holders and place them where they cannot be easily knocked down. Never leave the house with candles burning.

Never Put Lit Candles on a Tree
Do not go near a Christmas tree with an open flame - candles, lighters or matches.

Seminole County Fire Department reminds all citizens to have a working and properly maintained smoke alarm in all sleeping areas and on each floor of your home.

Holiday Drinking Can Kill, Experts Warn

Drunk-driving accidents, heart problems, home injuries are preventable, say U.S. emergency doctors.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Excessive alcohol consumption -- a common problem during the holiday season -- can lead to serious injury and death, warns the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).
The group urges people to use good judgment when they get together with family and friends.
"Very few things are more heartbreaking than to see a family suffer the loss of a loved one because of an alcohol-related tragedy, and during the holidays, people take risks. A fun holiday celebration can turn into a nightmare in the blink of an eye, and it can happen to anyone, and we don't want that to happen," Dr. Sandra Schneider, ACEP president, said in a society news release.
Each year in the United States, 79,000 deaths and many more injuries occur as a direct result of excessive alcohol consumption, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Alcohol-related injuries are not always driving-related incidents like some may assume. Emergency physicians have treated patients who have been seriously injured while decorating a home for the holidays," Schneider said.
These injuries can occur from falls while stringing lights on roofs, climbing ladders and using power tools incorrectly because of intoxication.
"These activities are dangerous under any circumstances. When you add alcohol to the mix, all of a sudden cognitive skills are lessened, personal judgments change, and your ability to think coherently is decreased," Schneider said. Heavy drinking at this time of year can also cause "holiday heart syndrome," which is an irregular heartbeat in otherwise healthy people. But the major concern during the holidays, and throughout the year, is drunk driving. "Drunk driving is 100 percent preventable. Don't get behind the wheel of a car if you've had too much to drink. You are not only a danger to yourself, but also to everyone else on the road," Schneider said. Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Dependency CEU Continuing Education
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about alcohol and public health.

(SOURCE: American College of Emergency Physicians, news release, Nov. 9, 2010)