VIDEO: Cedar Rapids saw 10 fewer fires during the 2020 holiday season compared to 2019.
The Cedar Rapids Fire Department says most home fires each year happen from Thanksgiving to January 1st.
The Department has a tradition of hanging a wreath with red lights of the front of its main station on Second Avenue, and every time a fire occurs, they switched a light from red to white.
In 2020, there were 14 fires. In 2019, there were 24.
“These are fires that are in the home, like unattended cooking when the oven catches on fire, some were heating equipment overheats, like your furnace blew or chimneys or fire places, sometimes those get out of control, so it’s things like that that are in the home, so we try to remind people, pay attention those things happen,” said Bethany Campbell-Tvedt, Cedar Rapids Fire Department Public Education Specialist.
Campbell-Tvedt also reminds people to make sure your smoke detector is working and you have a fire escape plan.