BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL
DANVILLE — The paper Christmas decorations children bring home during the holidays are cute, but also potentially dangerous.
For some, the weekend after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas decorating season, as colorful lights, inflatable yard scenes and other interior and exterior items dot the landscape.
Danville Assistant Fire Chief John High said putting potentially flammable items like paper decorations too close to an ignition source are one of the mistakes people make when it comes to decorating for the holidays.
“Kids make decorations at school and bring them home and parents get them too close to a light on a tree,” he said.
Luckily, Danville firefighters don’t see a large influx of actual fire scenes during the holiday season as a result of decorations. High said many times firefighters are called to a home because of overloaded circuitry producing a hot smell that residents can’t pinpoint.
He said many of the older homes in Danville don’t have the systems to handle excessive decorations.
“You plug too many into a circuit and you overheat it,” he said.
In fact, High said residents would be surprised at how many homes still use the older screw-in fuses.
“You don’t think about those things until something happens,” he said.
According to the Nation Fire Protection Association, improper handling of Christmas trees result in as many as 300 home fires in the U.S. each year, causing 14 deaths, 21 injuries and almost $17 million in damages.
Almost half of the tree fires are caused by an electrical problem or malfunction. With living trees, residents are warned to continually check for fresh green needles and make sure the tree stand is filled with up to a quart of water per one inch of trunk diameter.
The state fire marshal warns against connecting more than three push-in light strings or more than 50 screw-in bulbs. It is also advised not to plug too many decorations onto one extension cord.
