Holiday Safety: Entertaining

Memories of past holidays are usually recalled as a time spent celebrating with family and friends gathered around the dinner table or around the Christmas tree.  Unfortunately, the more people you have in your home the more danger there can be from fire.  The following are a few tips to help reduce the danger from a home fire during this joyous season.

• Unattended cooking is the leading cause of home fires in the U.S.  When cooking for holiday visitors, remember to keep an eye on the stove.
• Make sure to have plenty of large, deep ashtrays available and check them frequently.  Cigarette butts can smolder for hours unseen, so empty your ashtrays into a metal can to let them cool overnight, or douse them with water before dumping them into the trash.
• Before going to bed after having friends over, check in the cushions and around furniture, and in the trash for any cigarette butts, which might have been dropped.
• Ask anyone who smokes to keep their smoking materials with them, especially matches and lighters, so small children don’t touch them.
• Test your smoke detectors and replace the batteries if they are a year old.  If you can’t remember when you put them in then they are too old.
• If you have guests sleeping in your home, explain to them what your home escape plan is and how it works.

By taking the time to think about the safety of yourself and your guests, and by using these tips you can make sure that the memories you make while entertaining this season are happy ones.  For more information on holiday fire safety you can call the Liberty Fire Department at 816-439-4310.