Holiday Season: Candle-Related Home Fires

12/9/2016 (Permalink)

Candle fires cause 8,200 home fires a year, resulting in 80 deaths, 790 injuries, and 374 million dollars in property damage every year.

The top four days for candle fires are New Year's Eve, New Years Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day.

3/5 candle fires start when something that could burn, such as a Christmas tree, a mattress, bedding, curtains or decorations were too close to the candle.

Almost 1/5 of candle-related fires were unattended or abandoned.

While it's best to avoid candles all together, here are safety tips for use of candles.

1. Keep candles at least 12 inches away from anything that can burn
2. Never leave a candle unattended, blow out candles when you leave a room- you can always relight it when you are back in the room
3. Keep candles away from greens and all decorations - especially the Christmas tree.
4. Keep burning candles out of the reach of children and pets.
5. Don’t burn a candle all the way down. Extinguish the flame if it comes too close to the holder or container. For a margin of safety, discontinue burning a candle when 2 inches of wax remains or ½ inch if in a container.
6. Extinguish a candle if it repeatedly smokes, flickers, or the flame becomes too high.  The candle isn’t burning properly. Cool, trim the wick, then check for drafts before relighting
7. Trim candlewicks to ¼ inch each time before burning. Long or crooked wicks can cause uneven burning and dripping.