Fire safety tips over the holiday season

Christmas is a joyous time for celebrating with family and friends, but it can also be deadly.

Candles, cooking and Christmas lights are just some of the added dangers of the yuletide season, said Barrhead Regional Fire Department chief John Whittaker.

“When it comes to Christmas time, we deal with a lot of calls whether it is because people are cooking, or their tree is too close to a fireplace or overloading circuits with powerbars,” Whittaker said, noting it can take as little as 17 seconds for a room to be totally engulfed in flames.

“If your tree is too close to the fireplace and it is a dry scotch pine, it is the amount of time it takes you to leave a room, go get something from a bedroom or a glass of water, and come back. You’ll be lucky to make it out alive. My advice? Keep your tree watered,” he added.

In addition, Whittaker said it takes a total of 30 seconds before everything in the room starts to burn.

“It’s called flash-over and it is where everything in the room is producing a gas and is burning. Even steel will produce such a gas if it is burned at the right temperature.”

Whittaker isn’t trying to scare people, but ensure they are aware of the lurking dangers.

“I want people to respect what is going on and how to protect themselves this holiday season,” he said, adding it takes time for firefighters to respond and having the foresight to prevent potentially hazardous conditions could save your life.

As a firefighter, Whittaker said he takes in every aspect of a room that has the potential to harm.

“That’s not me being scared of something, rather, that’s me being aware of conditions and doing something about it. I’m hoping that more people, rather than just during fire prevention week, will do the same thing. We get a ramped up number of calls during the holidays and we [the department] don’t like seeing people on Christmas.

“Heck, I’ll be honest. We don’t like seeing people period. Your bad day is our Monday to Friday. With more people being in the house at this time of year, we just wanted to get the message out to do your best to be safe.”

Whittaker said the department will perform home inspections.

“Especially around Christmas, if you are concerned, we can come in and give you recommendations on how to ensure your safety and to prevent fires from starting,” he said, adding the department’s main concerns are overloaded power circuits, cooking fires and creosote build-up in chimney or stove pipes.

Whittaker said the subject is spoken of in the town’s newsletter.

“We touch on wood stoves and fire places, the proper maintenance of them, running them right and proper cleaning. Creosote build-up can be dangerous if that material collects in a space you cannot get to. Fires can happen and it is important to have the pipes cleaned regularly,” he said, noting people tend to not think about these things.