Keep these things in mind this Holiday Season to avoid a fire.
When the holiday season arrives, we know everyone is busy shopping for gifts, anticipating the arrival of family members, decorating their homes, and cooking plenty of good meals. Unfortunately, we also know the holiday season for many people gets ruined due to their home catching fire. Whether it's a house or apartment, thousands of fires occur each year in the U.S. during the holidays. Whether you're a
landlord or
tenant, here are some common fire dangers we want you to be aware of to ensure you have a great holiday season.
Christmas Trees
While Christmas trees are beautiful once they are decorated, we also know they can be quite a fire hazard over the holidays. According to the National Fire Prevention Association, over 200 house fires are started by Christmas trees each year. In most cases, we find this occurs when people who have natural Christmas trees allow them to dry out. When this happens and the constant heat from decorative lights gets too hot, the trees can quickly get engulfed in flames. To prevent this, we suggest you fill your tree stand with water on a daily basis.
Overloaded Electrical Outlets
Between the Christmas tree lights and other decorations that require electricity, the space heaters that may be needed to keep an apartment or house warm, and the usual gadgets that are always plugged into outlets, we know it can be very easy for electrical outlets to become overloaded during the holidays. In fact, statistics show that nearly 50 percent of all residential fires occurring over the holidays are linked to electrical shorts caused by overloaded outlets. Preventive measures we suggest to avoid this problem include always following the manufacturer's directions when using holiday lights, replacing old sets of lights that have worn-out strings or loose bulbs, and keeping an electrical outlet's total load to no more than 15 amps.
Holiday Gifts
Yes, we're sad to say that even those holiday gifts that are so beautifully concealed within their wrapping paper can also pose a fire danger during your holiday festivities. For example, after you've got everything wrapped, you may be trying to find places to hide the gifts for awhile. If so, don't hide them in a basement near a furnace or wood stove, and also don't stack them high in a closet until they are near a light bulb, since the heat from the bulb could cause the paper to catch fire. When the time finally arrives for opening up the gifts, don't decide to toss the wrapping paper into that roaring fire in the fireplace. If you do, this could create a flash fire.
Candles
While we know there is perhaps nothing more beautiful on a holiday night than having candles burning in many parts of a home, we also know that candles are responsible for many rental properties going up in flames year in and year out. If you're like us, you may want to convert from traditional candles to LED candles, which are made to look almost like the real thing but are much safer to use in your home. Should you want to stick with tradition and use real candles, we suggest you always keep them at least two feet away from any nearby objects that could catch fire, always use sturdy candleholders or dishes underneath them, and never go to bed and decide to keep your candles burning.
Unattended Cooking
When folks are cooking a holiday meal, it is easy to get distracted by children or pets, a program that may be on television, or numerous other things. In many rental properties, a huge fire danger over the holiday season is unattended cooking. Should something boil over on the stove or send flames shooting a few feet into the air, it's no time at all until the entire kitchen is on fire. To stay safe, we recommend you or someone else in your household always be present in the kitchen when cooking. Also, it's a good idea to keep things like paper towels, dish towels, and cardboard containers away from the stove, since they can easily catch fire.
Smoke Detectors (or Lack Thereof)
As a landlord, we know you've got plenty of things to do over the holidays. However, one very easy thing you can and should do for your residential properties to decrease the fire danger is to make sure your properties have up-to-date
smoke detectors that are fully operational. Not only will this help protect your properties, but it may also save the lives of your tenants should a fire take place. Prior to the holiday season, we suggest you check the smoke detectors in your properties, test them, and replace any that may be old or malfunctioning. To make this easier, we suggest you consider using 10-year smoke detectors that have self-contained batteries. Extremely reliable and durable, these smoke detectors require virtually no maintenance over their lifespan.
Heating Systems
Finally, we can't emphasize enough just how many holiday fires start each year due to space heaters,
fireplaces, and furnaces that experience various types of problems. Should space heaters be used in a home or apartment, they should always be placed at least three feet away from furniture, curtains, and of course the Christmas tree. If possible, they should be plugged into an outlet other than one being used for the Christmas tree, since this may overload the outlet. Fireplaces and furnaces should also be checked each year to make sure they are ready for the cold weather ahead. This should include cleaning the chimney, changing furnace filters and inspecting other components, and anything else you deem to be necessary.
The holidays are meant to be a time for family fun and celebrations. If you keep these tips in mind as you begin your holiday season, we're sure you'll have lots of laughs and good cheer with family and friends. But most importantly, you will also have plenty of peace of mind, knowing the fire danger has been virtually eliminated.
o you need help with your
rental properties? If so we would love to answer any questions or lend a hand. 530-410-6085
