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Holiday Fireplace and Mantel Decorating Safety Tips
Each holiday season it seems that we hear at least one or two heartbreaking news stories about a family who has lost their home due to a fire caused by a too-dry Christmas tree or other holiday decorating mishap. If you’ve got a fireplace, it’s probably the focal point of your living room, and it’s perfectly understandable that you’d want to take full advantage of the mantel to display a variety of festive decorations, including Christmas stockings. After all, it’s a tradition, both here in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, wherever people celebrate Christmas! Make sure you take the proper precautions when hanging those holiday decorations!
How to Hang the Stockings with Care
There are a few things to remember about decorating a fireplace that will help keep you and your family from becoming the victims of a house fire during this festive and joyous time of year:
- Go ahead and hang those stockings, but remember to take them down whenever the fireplace is lit. Anything dangling from the mantelpiece — whether stockings, greenery or ribbons — is a fire hazard when there’s a fire blazing on the hearth!
- Spray any live greenery adorning your mantel with a fire retardant. It won’t make greenery, (including your Christmas tree) fireproof, but it will make it fire resistant, meaning that a stray spark from the fireplace would be less likely to ignite it.
- Don’t put your Christmas tree near the fireplace either. Even if it’s not a real tree, and is labeled fire resistant, it simply can’t take the heat that the area near the fireplace puts out when there’s a fire burning in it.
- Use a fireplace screen, which will keep sparks from flying out of the firebox and potentially igniting nearby objects.
- If candles are a part of your Christmas “mantelscape”, make sure they’re only burning when there’s somebody there. Never ever leave a burning candle unattended! Better yet, consider using LED candles instead of the real deal!
Make Sure Your Furnace Is Safe Too!
When it comes to fireplaces and holiday decorations, a little common sense goes a very long way. The same is true of making sure that your furnace is in tiptop shape as we dive into the winter heating system. That means having it checked out, cleaned, and repaired by a professional, like the experts at Getzschman Heating and Cooling. We’re the Omaha area’s premier heating and cooling specialists, offering 24/7 service and a dedication to ensuring that each of our customers is warm all winter and cool all summer long!