Don’t let your ghoulish activities celebrating Halloween turn into a real fright. On average, nearly 800 home fires begin with holiday decorations each year.
“Halloween is a cherished time of spooky thrills and neighborly bonding,” said Bill Urbanski, Health & Safety coordinator, Electric Operations, “Always think safety first. Don’t decorate near power lines nor release Mylar balloons or kites where they can get caught in power lines.”
Follow these top 10 tips to help keep your home and neighborhood safe during the holiday:
- Use battery-operated candles or glow sticks.
Candles start more than one third of home decoration fires. If you do use flame candles, do not leave them unattended; remember to blow them out before leaving the room or going to sleep. - Choose costumes that do not have long, trailing fabric.
Not only is long, trailing fabric a trip hazard, it can catch or tangle in other decorations and extension cords and cause a fire. Also, choose flame-retardant costumes. - Be careful around kids.
Teach children to stay away from open flames. Never let children or pets play with lights, electrical decorations, cords, matches or lighters. Keep batteries stored safely in packages, placed where children and pets cannot ingest them. Have children carry flashlights or glow sticks when trick or treating at night. - Keep combustibles at least three feet from heat sources.
A heat source that is too close to the decoration is a factor in two of every five home fires that begin with decorations. Dried flowers, cornstalks, hay, leaves and crepe paper catch fire easily. - Keep exits/escape routes clear of decorations.
Don’t block escape routes and make sure all smoke alarms are working. - Never overload electrical outlets.
Overloaded electrical outlets and faulty wires are common causes of holiday fires. Avoid overloading outlets and plug only one high-wattage appliance into each outlet at a time. Also, cover external outlets that may be easily accessible by children, to avoid objects being shoved into the outlets. - Inspect all electrical decorations for damage before use.
Cracked or damaged sockets, loose/bare wires or loose connections may cause serious shocks or start fires. - Check decorations for certification label.
Decorations not bearing a label from an independent testing laboratory such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Canadian Standards Association (CSA), or Intertek (ETL) have not been tested for safety and could be hazardous. Choose decorations that are flame retardant or flame resistant. - Keep electronics in dry areas and away from combustibles. Phones and tablets, sometimes used to play holiday music, should be kept on a nightstand and not where overheating can catch a blanket or pillow on fire. Also, lights on a fish tank may seem like a cool idea – but keep electronics dry, away from water.
- Protect electrical cords from damage.
To avoid shock or fire hazards, cords should never be pinched by furniture, forced into small spaces such as doors and windows, placed under rugs or across walkways or sidewalks, located near heat sources, or attached by nails or staples (use clips instead). Check for frayed wires, cracked sockets and excessive kinking. Also, don’t string more than three electrical cords together. Run a piece of electrical tape around the plugged connections on lights or other decorations plugged into electric cords exposed to the weather. Use weatherproof cords for external use.
Just as important, as you’re out and about, if you smell gas – Don’t panic; act quickly. Move at least 350 feet away from the area. Once you are at a safe distance, call PSE&G at 1-800-880-PSEG (7734) or 911 to report a potential gas leak. #PSEGSafety
Sources: Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
We captured Halloween in the Magazine Industry and Advertising Industry for Hearst Magazines, Conde Nast and Hachette Philapache Publishers It is an independent walk so your news is new news to you and perhaps to them. Findings: the trees are in an October sun, the rest are under May sun. Meaning there are walkthroughs for new businesses and new land as a guest to register in the stock-market and most are fixed under Columbus Circle and back to Chicago where the Halloween airway would come through but has been abolished, as to the resume’ route the apartment route also has been adjusted to abolish the broken atmosphere on Ridge Road three portals have been shut, you can compare them to the garbage route or big truck route perhaps from the city’s around but one person closed three, that would be to close three natural disasters too. Can you find and post something different like this, also on your off day look at the halloween greeeting cards and compare them to the church, it is our greatest find from great people. One lane can make the difference in abolishing it, just mine. Thank you, Sincerely Yvonne