Home Safety Tips for Holidays

It’s that time of the year again. Those beautiful strands of lights in and around the house. Live Christmas tree in all its glory. Clearly, holiday dazzle is all around us. But so are the safety hazards that can lead to serious accidents if you are not careful enough. It’s always better to play safe than sorry. So, here we are with some practical home safety tips for this holiday season.

Safety with lighting

1. Inspect all your holiday lights before using. Replace any frayed, pinched or damaged cords. Discard cracked bulb holders or lights with loose connections. When replacing broken or fused bulbs, make sure you buy new bulbs with the same wattage.
2. Don’t connect strands of lights to a single outlet. This will overload the outlet and cause it to overheat.
3. Never string more than three strands of lights together.
4. Always unplug all the lights before going to bed and also when you are not home.
5. Always check for certification mark from Underwriters Laboratory (UL) before buying light strings, indoor lights, extension cords or any other electrical decorative item. This helps ensure that your products are high quality and meet all the safety and performance standards, minimizing any risk of accidents.
6. Before installing lights, read the labels carefully. Some lights are certified only to be used indoors and not outdoors.
7. Place safety caps on any unused electrical outlet to prevent small children sticking their fingers or any other object into the outlet.
8. Use insulated tips to keep light strings in place. Never use metal nails.
9. When you are using a ladder to put up your Christmas lights, do it in a team. Ask someone to support the ladder while you climb and string those strands of lights together for a dazzling display.

Christmas tree safety

1. Choose a fresh tree with green needles and make sure it is sturdy and stable.
2. Fresh Christmas tree should be always kept far away from heat sources such as candles, space heaters, radiators, lamps, fireplaces or heat vents.
3. Keep your Christmas tree well-hydrated. Water it from time to time as a dry tree is more prone to catching a fire.
4. Buying an artificial tree? Choose one with a label that says, “fire resistant.” While the label doesn’t mean it will catch fire at all, it means the tree is made up of material that will catch fire very easily.

Smoke alarms

Install smoke alarms on each level. It will give you an audible signal through a siren or a buzzer that a fire has started, if you are asleep or in any other part of the room. An early warning goes a long way in saving lives and also helpful in putting out the fire in time.

While most homes now have smoke alarms or smoke detectors, statistics say that it is the non-working smoke alarms that are responsible for most home fires. So, test and clean your smoke detectors every month to make sure they are in good, working condition. Watch out for dead batteries.

These are some basic home safety tips that will ensure you enjoy a fun-filled, risk-free holiday time with your friends and family. Are you ready?