EDMONTON – Fire experts are asking you to think about fire safety during the holidays.
The holiday season is a busy time of the year for many of us, and the hustle and bustle can cause us to forget about the dangers of certain situations and materials in our homes.
According to the province, the primary fire danger zone during the holidays is the kitchen. With all the extra commotion that happens during the holidays, kitchens are being left unattended while meals are being cooked.
“You’ve added a couple extra hazards into the home, as well you’ve added more people into one building which adds devastation or injury to fires,” says Fire Commissioner Trent West, Province of Alberta.
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Some of the measures we should be taking include making sure our real Christmas trees remain moist because dry trees can pose a fire hazard, and making sure we have working smoke alarms on every level of our homes.
Watch below: A test conducted by the National Fire Protection Association and Underwriters Laboratories showing how flammable a dry Christmas tree can be as opposed to a tree watered regularly.
“At a time of the year that’s so important to families that you really need to keep fire safety top of mind and take extra measures,” explains Chief Ken Block, Edmonton Fire Rescue.
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Improper use of a barbeque is another leading cause of fires. Even though it’s winter, fire experts say they still get called to fires that start from barbeques.
“The safety measure here is that they’re not too close to combustibles, not too close to the house, and certainly never in a garage, never in an enclosed space. We have numerous fires every year because of that,” explains Block.
Smokers not butting out their cigarettes properly has also had devastating effects in the past during the holiday season.
“Cigarettes…are tossed into a planter that’s full of mulch. And typically what will happen is that will smoulder for a few hours, and believe me these fires can lead to extraordinary events,” says Block.
READ MORE: Improperly disposed of cigarette likely cause of Edmonton condo fire
Other fire safety tips include:
- never throwing water on a grease fire
- use a fire extinguisher or baking soda
- never turning on an overhead fan with a cooking fan because it could cause the fire to spread, and
- not overloading electrical outlets.
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