Are You Out of Your Tree?

By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy of flickr

Having a live Christmas tree can be one of the joys of the holidays.  Nothing beats the aroma of pine or spruce greeting you and your family as you gather in the living room to exchange gifts. For many Americans, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without a tree.  With that being said, you also need to understand the responsibility and potential liability you take on when you keep a cut tree in your home for a month or more.  Statistics tell us that annually there are more than 250 home fires started by Christmas trees. Of those, more than a dozen deaths and two dozen injuries are caused when the tree goes up in flames.  To help you keep your family safe during the holidays, I thought I’d dedicate this week’s blog to Christmas tree hazards.

Evergreen trees are like gasoline on a stick.

If you want to see something truly terrifying, watch the 90-second video below produced by the National Fire Protection Association.  In it, they spark a live fir tree to flame with the resultant firestorm occurring in less than 60-seconds.  Aside from the flames which would quickly spread to nearby furnishings, the gouts of toxic smoke that pours forth from this kind of blaze can easily asphyxiate everyone in the house, should the tree go up in the dead of night.

The causes of most Christmas tree fires have to do with two factors:

1.      The dryness of the tree

2.      even the smallest of sparks.   

While some families are lax when it comes to keeping a live tree hydrated which can cause it to become tinder dry, many times the fault lies with where you buy your tree.  Hundreds of Christmas tree lots spring up like weeds in north Florida right after Thanksgiving.  While some of the trees are locally grown, others are shipped from as far away as North Carolina.  The longer a fir, pine or spruce tree spends in a truck, the drier it becomes.  Add to this, if you wait until the last minute to procure your tree, it’s possible that it has been without water for as long as a month.  This means it’s deathly dry before you even get it home.

Image courtesy of wikimedia

To avoid buying a bright green fire trap, here are a few helpful hints:

1.      When looking at a tree on a lot, give it a shake to see how many needles fall.  If hardly any fall out, you have a well-hydrated tree.  If it rains needles, find another tree.

2.      Once you get the tree home, instead of immediately taking it inside, instead stand it in a bucket of water for 2 days.  This will allow the tree to rehydrate and open fully.  It will also help overcome what vintners call bottle shock, by allowing your tree to overcome the shock of transport.

3.      Once you move it inside, make sure you top the tree stand with room temperature water on a daily basis.  To further assist your tree to stay hydrated, some people fill an atomizer with water and spray the tree every morning as well.

Deck the Halls

While everyone loves to deck the tree with lights, ornaments and tinsel, if you want to keep your tree from becoming a fire hazard, don’t overload it.  Also, don’t set it up close to the fireplace, a space heater or any table where you intend to light holiday candles.  As you saw in the video above, all it takes is one spark to cause your tree to go up in a ball of flame. 

When it comes to lights, test them before you put them on a tree.  If any flicker, see if the bulb is at fault.  If it is, replace the bulb.  If it’s not, replace the string.  If you have a tree that requires multiple strings of lights, read the instructions on the box to make sure you don’t connect more than the recommended number of lights, as this could cause an overload that could spark a fire.  Last but not least, when it comes to lights, make sure you use an approved power strip and always unplug the lights when you go to bed or nobody is in the room with the tree.

Pet Paradise

Image courtesy of pixabay

Those of you who have pets need to keep them away from the tree.  Christmas trees have a magnetic attraction to dogs and cats, especially when they are lit.  Cats love to climb trees and play with the ornaments or chew on the wires, either of which is an accident waiting to happen. Both dogs and cats have been known to topple Christmas trees, which could lead to a fire were the tree to fall on a lit candle or come in contact with a space heater.  Your best bet to keep your pets and your home out of harm’s way is to make sure that neither Fido nor Miss Kitty can get anywhere near your tree when you aren’t in the room.  This means either sequestering your pets or relegating your tree to a room that can be closed off from the patter of 4-legged critters.

Even birds shouldn’t be allowed to fly into your tree. Their tiny talons and sharp beaks can easily fray the wires attached to your tree, which could spark a fire.

Keep the kids clear too

As much as we all love to see the gleam in our little one’s eyes when they spot a decorated Christmas Tree, kids and trees don’t always mix.  Just like pets, small children can easily cause an electrical short by playing unsupervised under the tree.  They can also easily hurt themselves if an ornament should break or if they manage to pull the tree down on top of themselves. 

If you want to keep the holidays happy and safe, heed my warnings above or switch to a fireproof artificial Christmas tree. 

Catherine Powell is the owner of A Plus All Florida, Insurance in Orange Park, Florida.  To find out more about homeowner’s insurance, check out her website at http://aplusallfloridainsuranceinc.com/