Fire Safety Resources: December

Put a Freeze on Winter Fires

The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) are once again teaming up to promote winter fire safety through their campaign, “Put a Freeze on Winter Fires.” The goal of the campaign is to educate the public on increased fire risks during the winter months.

December, January and February are the leading months for home fires. Many of these fires are caused by cooking, heating and holiday decorations such as lights, Christmas trees and candles. To help you share important safety messages with your community, USFA and NFPA have created flyers and social media assets for you to share oncooking safety, holiday decorations safety, heating safety, generator safety and electrical safety.

Follow #wintersafety on Twitter at @usfire and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/usfire.

Fire Risk in 2019

USFA’s new report explores fire risk for U.S. population. The risk of death or injury from fire is not the same for everyone. Fire Risk in 2019 explores fire risk for people living in the U.S. in 2019 and why for some groups of people, fire risk is more severe. African Americans and American Indians/Alaska Natives were at a greater relative risk of dying in a fire than the general population.

Decorate with fire safety in mind

The winter holidays are a time for families and friends to get together. It’s fun to decorate for the winter holidays, but holiday decorations can increase your risk for a home fire. As you deck the halls this season, be fire smart.

Following a few simple tips can help make your holidays fire-safe:

• Water your live Christmas tree every day. A dry tree is a fire hazard. Trees too close to a heat source cause 1 in every 4 winter fires.
• Make sure you are using the right lights. Some lights are only for indoor or outdoor use, but not both.
• Replace any string of lights with worn or broken cords or loose bulb connections.
• Choose holiday decorations that are flame resistant or flame retardant.
• Keep lit candles away from decorations and things that can burn. More than 1/3 of home decoration fires are started by candles. Consider using flameless candles, they look very similar and are safer.
• Blow out lit candles and turn off all light strings and decorations when leaving the room or going to bed.
• Make sure your decorations don’t block windows and doors.

Download the winter holiday fires infographic to share with your community or use the social media cards on your social channels.

Building codes can increase your community's resilience

According to FEMA’s Building Code Save Study, 65% of counties, cities and towns across the U.S. have not adopted modern building codes. Learn how the adoption and implementation of hazard-resistant building codes can make your community safer by accessing FEMA’s Building Science Resource Library.

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