Christmas can fill you with a warm feeling, but hopefully not from your Christmas tree being on fire! So let’s review a few tips to keep you safe this year.
- Think safe lights. Get rid of those energy hogging and hot burning incandescent lights and get some cool operating LED lights.
- Use products where they were intended. Packages are marked for indoor or outdoor use. Use the products the way there were intended and you won’t burn your building down.
- Be careful with candles. Candles and kids don’t mix well but plenty of adults have had tragic accidents with candles. Why are we hung up on this 19th century technology? Thankfully, there are “flameless” electric candles that are very convincing and you don’t get the soot and wax mess. Do any internet search and you’ll find dozens of alternatives.
- Bring any electric issues to your landlord’s attention immediately. This shouldn’t wait until Christmas but should apply year-round. Sparking, bulbs blowing, switches that require multiple attempts before they work, none of this is normal. When in doubt, contact your landlord.
- No cord pinching. Cords running through doors, windows or patio doors are subject to getting pinched causing the cords to fail and a fire to start.
- Don’t overload your circuits. Don’t plug too many items into the same outlets. Don’t employ outlet adaptors designed to multiple the capacity of an outlet.
This would be a no!
Have a Merry and safe Christmas!