Each year millions of people around the world celebrate the holiday season by setting up a Christmas tree in their house and decorating it with ornaments and lights. It’s a wonderful time of year, but there is a fire hazard that you need to be aware of.
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), trees used indoors during the holiday season account for approximately 400 house fires each year. The consequences of these fires include 10 deaths, 80 injuries and more than $15 million in property damage.
A significant hazard is created when a Christmas tree begins to dry out. While a fresh tree is not likely to burn well, a dry tree can burn with incredible speed and terrible consequences.
Just watch this one minute demonstration from NIST showing how quickly a dry Christmas tree can burn.
(Unfortunately this video does not have an audio track so there will be no sound coming from your speakers)
The reaction most people have the first time they see that is “Wow” followed by a few moments of silence. I guess those public safety messages to properly dispose of Christmas trees before they dry out have a good purpose.
I will also take my reaction a step further by expressing my belief that smoke alarms alone would not give a family enough time to get out of the house before that thick black smoke would consume the house.
This is just one of many examples where the fast response of residential fire sprinklers applying water directly to the fire would be life saving. A fire sprinkler would not only slow down the fire and reduce the amount of smoke, in some cases it may even be able to extinguish the fire and save the home from destruction.
In this example, a fire sprinkler system may truly be the difference between surviving and dying.
Each year during the holiday season, please remember this video and take proper precautions by ensuring your tree is properly disposed of before turning into a significant fire hazard.
View the USFA and NIST further study and video showing how a residential fire sprinkler can control a Christmas Tree fire.
daniel
daniel November 11, 2009 at 1:45 pm
there is a prodecut i saw on a televsion show called the guardin angel. which is a water tank under the tree disguised as a gift with a hose running up the middle of the tree to the angel which is also a smoke detector and sprinkler. once the fire starts its trips the sprinkler, which sprays the fire before it gets to big. it wont put all the fire out in most cases but it will dampen it and set off an alarm giving the family enough time to escape with ther lives.