By paNOW

P.A. firefighters promote fire safety during holiday season

Dec 13, 2017 | 6:00 PM

With Christmas around the corner, staff of the Prince Albert Fire Department are reminding folks about fire safety.

Staff from city hall and members of the public gathered for two open house sessions on Dec. 13 to learn how to keep their homes safe over the holiday season.

“This initiative is something we’ve talked about for the last month and a half here at the fire department,” Fire Chief Jason Everitt said. “We thought there was merit to introducing fire safety, especially leading up to the holiday season.”

Everitt said the open house at city hall was a trial of sorts to collect feedback and gauge how beneficial fire safety open houses could be. He said there are plans in the works to host more publicly advertised events down the road.

The department typically sees an increase in calls around the holiday season and taking the initiative by informing the public is a way to potentially reduce call volume. Much of the information in the presentations focused on holiday safety.

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Topics like electrical and candle safety, fire extinguisher use and maintenance, and kitchen fire awareness were discussed.

In terms of electrical safety, residents were reminded to not overload their power outlets with Christmas lights. People were asked to check the boxes lights came in to see how many strings can be connected together to prevent overloading electrical capacity.

Candles can add a nice, rustic feel to homes during the Christmas season. Those who attended the open house were reminded to keep candles at least 12 inches away from anything flammable.

Christmas trees were also discussed; Everitt shared some best practises around keeping seasonal evergreens safe. For people who use live trees, proper maintenance begins prior to even cutting the tree down.

“You want to make sure and give it a good shake so that the needles stay in place,” Everitt said. “If a lot of needles happen to drop off, or if they’re brittle – if you can bend them and they break, instead of just returning back to their original shape, those are indicators the tree is not healthy to begin with.”

Everitt also said to cut a few extra inches from the bottom as live trees can seal their trunks with sap. He recommended placing freshly cut trees in water as soon as possible to prevent them from drying up. A sure sign of a healthy tree is continuous water consumption.

“At the point where it stops [drinking water] that’s a point where you need to remove the tree from your home,” Everitt said. “Typically two weeks is about the ‘safe period’ where you can have a tree in your house before it becomes a dry fire hazard.”

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas