Winter Fire Safety

As we change seasons from fall to winter and progress into the holiday season, the United States Fire Administration, a component of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, asks you to take a few minutes to review the following fire safety tips to help ensure you and your family remain fire safe.


Video demonstration showing how flammable a dry Christmas tree can be as opposed to a tree watered regularly.

The cold weather brings with it the need for heating at around the same time the holiday season starts; along with the celebrations comes an increase in home fires, fire deaths and fire related injuries. Each year, an estimated 3,700 Americans die in fires and about 20,000 are injured. Approximately, eighty percent of all fire deaths occur in the home. Not including arson-related deaths, from April 2007 through September 2007 at least 589 people were killed in home fires and when it became cooler, from October 2007 through March 2008, at least 982 people were killed in home fires. Many of those killed might still be alive today if they had known how to prevent a fire and how to survive once a fire starts.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), dried out Christmas trees are involved in an estimated 200 fires, 10 deaths and $10 million in property damage each year. CPSC also estimates that there are about 14,000 candle-related fires annually, resulting in 170 deaths and $350 million in property damage. Following some simple fire safety tips can boost survival rates dramatically.

• Install and maintain smoke alarms. These are the single most effective tool for protecting you should fire occur.
• Keep your holiday decorations away from heat sources, including fire places and space heaters. If using a live tree, keep it watered; when the tree dries out, discard it.
• Inspect holiday lights each year for frayed wires, bare spots, gaps in the insulation, broken or cracked sockets, and excessive kinking or wear.
• Do not leave lit holiday lights unattended. If your holiday celebrations involve the use of lit candles, never leave them unattended.
• Chimneys, furnaces and wood stoves should be inspected and cleaned annually by a professional. When using indoor fireplaces or wood stoves, use only seasoned hardwood.
• Always use a metal mesh or glass screen in front of your fireplace. Never use flammable liquids to start a fire. Extinguish the fire in the fireplace before going to bed or leaving the house. Soak hot ashes in water and place them in a metal container outside your home. Stack firewood outdoors at least 30 feet away from your home, and not in a garage.
• Use only space heaters evaluated by a nationally recognized laboratory, such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Make sure heaters have an automatic switch to turn them off if the heater falls over. Leave at least three feet of space around all sides of your space heater.
• Have your furnace inspected annually by a professional. Keep trash and other combustibles away from the heating system.

Fire departments respond to numerous house fires daily, and all firefighters know most of these fires could have been prevented. As America’s Fire and Emergency services leader, the USFA provides a wide range of safety information, checklists and pamphlets to ensure a fire safe nation. For more information, visit www.usfa.dhs.gov.

Gregory B. Cade
Fire Administrator, U.S. Fire Administration (USFA)