The Fire Marshal's Guide to Holiday Safety



Fire Marshal Ray Occhialini has seen it all.

He's seen extension cords stapled to walls and used as wiring. He's seen outlets so overloaded they've started fires. He's seen propane tanks stored inside buildings. And he's seen holiday candles ruin the holiday.

In one house, a lighted candle stood amid decorations in a bathroom at one end of the house, Occhialini says. While the family was having dinner at the other end of the house, the bathroom caught on fire.

Five years ago, he says, a Christmas tree caught on fire because of an overloaded electrical cord, and burned all the family's presents.

He has some tips.

Before you set up your tree, cut a few inches off the trunk and set the tree in water.

This cut opens the channels in the tree and allows it to take in water. A moist tree is far less of a fire hazard than is a dry tree.

Charlie Carroll, sales manager of Christmas Trees Worldwide, the Massachusetts firm through which the Montville Lions Club ordered their trees this year, says a good rule of thumb is that whatever the diameter of the trunk at its base, the tree will need that many quarts of water daily to stay fresh.

So a tree with a 4-inch trunk will need four quarts of water a day.

Never decorate your tree with candles, according to Occhialini. Replace worn-out electrical cords, use power strips, and make sure your lights are in good condition.

"LED lights use less electricity," he says, "and they're cool. They're not as expensive as they used to be, either," he says.

Occhialini recommends that everyone has a fire extinguisher in their home. You should also check it regularly. Most fire extinguishers have a dial that shows green for "working" and red for "not working." A 2 ½-pound dry chemical extinguisher should be plenty for a residential home.

And keep it handy. If you have to go down into the basement to get it, or you have to hunt for it under the sink, it's not going to help you much, Occhialini says.

In more general fire-safety terms, Occhialini says that everyone should have working smoke detectors in their homes. It's hard to think that people don't, these days, but he regularly goes into homes and finds no smoke detectors, or no working smoke detectors.

People should have carbon monoxide detectors, too, he says. Carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless, and the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are very much like the symptoms of flu. They build up gradually over time.

Have your furnace cleaned annually, Occhialini says. A dirty furnace can cause all sorts of problems, from soot to carbon monoxide.

The very best thing that people could do to help those who want to help them is to make sure your house number is visible from the road.

"That's the biggest problem," Occhalini says. "We can't find you."