A home’s biggest symbol of the holiday season, the Christmas tree, can also be a home’s biggest fire risk, and the folks who fight those fires want people to be aware.
The New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office hosted a Christmas tree burn at the Fire and EMS Academy in Concord on Wednesday, showing how quickly a tree can burst into flames and how home sprinkler systems can help.
The demonstration, held in a special trailer, used artificial trees to make the point that avoiding a natural tree doesn’t avoid fire risk.
The trailer had one “room” with a typical home sprinkler system, which put out the tree fire in less than a minute. The other tree burned so quickly that it engulfed the entire room before the blaze could be contained by firefighters.
The electrical Safety Foundation says that an average of 260 houses burn in the United States each year because Christmas trees catch on fire, often as the result of an electrical problem, “resulting in 12 deaths, 24 injuries and $16.4 million in property damage.”