The holiday season is one of those times when people crave a little decorations around their homes. However, it’s also the time of the year when houses catch fire due to unattended candles, damaged sockets, and loose wires. Use a fire extinguisher that has proper fire tags for the emergency. The key to safety is to be conscious when decorating your home.
Here are top 10 holiday electrical safety tips by a local electrical contractor in Tyler, TX , to keep your family safe throughout the season.
Inspect Those Decorations
Before sprucing up your home with fancy holiday decorations, be sure to do some inspection first. Look for any missing or broken plugs, bulbs, or sockets, loose wires, and any other damaged parts. Check your extension cords as well. Remember, your decorations have been sitting in storage for almost a whole year. They’re prone to damages.
Don’t Overload Electrical Outlets
Overloading outlets is one of the top causes of fires during the holiday season. Make sure that you only plug one high wattage appliance into each outlet. Consider using your extension cords or power strips with residential circuit breakers installed for better safety.
Incandescent Lights
Don’t connect more than three strings of incandescent lights if you’re using them to decorate your home. You might blow a fuse or the trip breaker because the incandescent bulbs will require more wattage than modern LED lights. It could lead to a fire.
The Christmas Tree
Do you have a live Christmas tree? Don’t let it dry out. After you get it cut, it can dry out quickly. Water your tree every day to keep it as fresh as possible. However, don’t let it stay in your house for an extended period. Dried-out Christmas trees can cause fire hazards in homes during the holiday season.
Candles
Are you the type of person who loves the look and scent of candles? If yes, you might want to consider using battery-operated candles because they are much safer. Unattended candles cause more than half of all holiday fire accidents. We recommend doing precautionary measures if you still intend on using candles for holiday celebrations. Plus, make sure all candles are out when you go to bed.
Keep Clearance Around Heat Sources
If you’re using a fireplace, operating an electric or kerosene space heater, ensure that all flammable objects are at least three feet away from the heat source. Combustible materials include curtains, furniture, gifts with wrapping paper, the Christmas tree, and other things that can easily catch fire.
Protect Cords from Damage
Before you place your holiday decorations, plan where the cords will be when you’re done. We highly advise ensuring that electrical and extension cords are protected from getting damaged. They should not be pinched by any furniture or hit by the vacuum. Also, your doors and windows shouldn’t damage electrical cords when you close them.
Check all Decorations for Certification
The decorations that you bought should have a label that an independent testing laboratory has inspected it. Some of those labels are the UL tag for Underwriters Laboratories, CSA for Canadian Standards Association, and ETL from Intertek. Don’t use decorations if you can’t find any of these tags.
Stay in the Kitchen while Cooking
When you cook your holiday food and snacks, please stay in the kitchen. Your pan can get hot quickly, and unattended cooking equipment can malfunction and cause fire accidents. You need to ensure that someone is in the kitchen, at least.
Bedtime
Accidents can also happen while everybody’s asleep. That’s why the last person who goes to bed at night should make sure that all the decorations are turned off and unplugged. You may assign someone who can do this task. Doing so will help prevent home fires during the holiday season.
Any homeowner who needs professional help to ensure their electrical system is good for the holidays can contact Maddox Residential & Commercial Services. Their electrical specialists will make sure everything in your home is safe for the celebrations. Contact them now! Not near you? Try searching online for ‘electrical contractor near me‘ or similar.
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