Personal Injury Safety: Holiday Decorating
When decorating for the holidays, it can be easy to get caught up in the festivities and forget to be focussed on proper safety. As the kids and family get involved, holiday decorating can get chaotic quickly. We don’t want to see any of these injuries occur, so we’d like to offer some of Kerry Collins & Associates’ top holiday decorating safety tips.
- Check all equipment for faulty wiring or frayed wires.
As you unpack your equipment and decorations from their summer-long slumber, you should inspect every piece for any damage. Wire damage or frayed wires can go unnoticed, but they are a serious fire hazard. Before plugging anything in, make sure all your decorations are safe to use!
- Never overload outlets.
Overloading outlets can cause circuits and fuses to blow, and ultimately, can lead to fires. When plugging in your decorations, make sure you’re not putting any unnecessary stress on your outlets. A good rule of thumb is to only have one major source of energy consumption per outlet. Along these same lines, it’s good practice to never connect more than three strings of lights together (for the same overloading reasons).
- Turn off all equipment when you sleep.
While you sleep, your electric equipment can easily malfunction, and you won’t notice until it’s too late. Turn off and unplug all your decorations every night to ensure a fire doesn’t start in the middle of the night.
- Use battery-operated candles.
It’s common sense that the open flames of candles are a fire hazard. When decorating your house for the holidays, we advise you use battery-operated candles whenever possible to eliminate this hazard.
- Keep your tree watered!
If you are decorating with a real tree, remember to keep it healthy and watered. Without watering, your tree will become dry, which is a very large fire hazard. All the lights and electricity on your tree can easily spark into a fire if your tree is dry.
Remember these tips while decorating for the holidays, and stay safe!
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