Question:
How many times over the years have we seen or read about a Christmas holiday disaster. As we prepare for the upcoming vacation and holiday, let's keep fire safety in mind as we trim the tree and deck the halls. This Fire Safety tip deals with Christmas trees and lighting. Have a safe and joyous holiday! Christmas trees with their butts immersed in water will remain safe from ignition by a point source of heat for at least three weeks, if installed reasonably fresh. The sensible approach to Christmas tree installation is to store the tree outdoors in the shade until ready for use. When it is brought indoors, immediately make a diagonal cut removing at least one or two inches of the butt, and stand the tree in water. The water must be replenished regularly. The following general fire safety precautions should also be taken into consideration: 1. Christmas trees must be kept clear of exits and paths of exit travel. 2. Trees should be set up and well supported in the coolest possible place away from sources of heat. 3. Use only electric lights bearing the UL label. Preference should be given to controlling the lights from a switch some distance away from the tree, and not plugged or unplugged into an outlet beneath the tree. 4. When spot lights are used to illuminate trees, such lights must be UL listed, located a safe dis- tance from the tree, adhering to the manufactures instructions. 5. Only non-combustible or labeled flame-retardant decorations are to be used.

Answer: -Q: How many times over the years have we seen or read about a Christmas holiday disaster. As we prepare for the upcoming vacation and holiday, let's keep fire safety in mind as we trim the tree and deck the halls.

A: Which brings up this question (which I was gonna post anyway, but thanks for the reminder).My Frasier Fir has been up about 10 days and it seems to be dropping a fair amount of needles. However, if you take needles off the tree and bend them, they bend and not break. Also, if you bite into them, there is still a tart taste from the sap. As long as these two conditions exist, the tree should be safe. Correct??

-I can't help but think that the Christmas tree issue in another example of what a great job we do in teaching the public about fire safety. Like our history with the installation of smoke detectors and now the push on extinguishers, many people have taken our message to heart and installed them. We ran our stats for the last seven years and found that in our city that there have not been any Christmas tree fires. I attribute this to Public Education. Of course things change yearly. Last year we were blessed with no fire deaths; this year we are up to four in a city of 500,000. Perhaps we are starting to have an effect on the public and just maybe we can change the appalling fire death rate we have throughout North America. I encourage all of us to become involved with our local media and publicize our issues relating to fire safety.