One of your favorite things about your fireplace is decorating its mantel for the holiday season. In order to avoid an accidental fire, you should be responsible when you take on this task. While your fireplace mantel may be the perfect spot to display your grandmother’s set of holiday china figurines, it is not the place for any decorations that are made from flammable materials. Before the start of each holiday season, national fire safety organizations like the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) promote holiday home decorating practices because of the increase in reported residential fires during this time of the year. As the best professional chimney company in the Charleston area, Ashbusters is committed to helping our community stay safe from the dangers of accidental fires. To help you avoid becoming a fire statistic this holiday season, we would like to share some responsible holiday decorating tips.
Keep your mantel free from combustible decorations.
Although you may think of your fireplace mantel as the spot to hang your family’s holiday stockings, you should never put anything that could burn in front of a heat source, including your fireplace. If you do not use your fireplace regularly and want to hang your stockings from the mantel, you will need to find an alternate hanging location whenever you light a fire over the holidays. Fresh greenery falls into the this category as well. As festive as they may appear to be, garland, swags, and wreaths made from pine, fir, and cedar trees are also highly flammable and should never be placed around your fireplace.
Protect children and pets.
Before the holiday season begins, you should make sure that your fireplace area is child and pet protected. Even if you do not have any kids or animals in your household, your friends relatives will likely be bringing theirs when they visit your home over the holidays. Ashbusters recommends that you keep children and pets at least three feet away from your fireplace, and we can show you screens that you can set up that will stop little ones from getting too close to the fire.
The last thing you want to deal with during the holidays is an accidental fire. To learn more NFPA-recommended fire safety practices, contact us today at Ashbusters. We are always here for any of your professional chimney and fireplace needs.