How To Prevent Christmas Tree Fires and Holiday Disasters This Winter

You can protect your home from a Christmas tree fire by watering live trees, keeping your tree away from heat sources and refraining from overloading your power strips, among other things. In addition, you can prevent other kinds of holiday house fires by hanging lights safely, mitigating fire hazards in the kitchen and ensuring you don’t leave Hanukkah menorahs, Kwanzaa kinaras or other candles unattended.

Keep reading to learn more about Christmas tree fire prevention, common causes of Christmas fires and more.

On This Page

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  Are Christmas Fires Common During the Holiday Season?

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  What Are the Most Common Christmas Fire Hazards?

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  Safety Tips To Prevent Christmas Fires

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  What Type of Insurance Will Cover You in the Event of a Christmas Tree Fire?

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  FAQs

Are Christmas Fires Common During the Holiday Season?

In general, home fires are common around the holidays, with average house fire rates peaking in December and January each year.^[1] That said, certain types of fires are more common at different times than others. For example, candle fires are most common throughout December and January, while cooking fires are most common on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and Christmas Eve.^[2]

What Are the Most Common Christmas Fire Hazards?

Along with cooking and candles, Christmas trees and other decorations are common sources of Christmas fire damage. About 43% of Christmas tree fires can be traced back to lighting equipment or electrical distribution issues, while lamps and bulbs cause another 24%. Meanwhile, on average from 2019 to 2023, there were 832 house fires per year that began with holiday decorations not placed on the tree itself.^[2]

How Many House Fires Are Caused by Christmas Trees?

Fire departments in the United States responded to an average of 145 calls per year for fires originating with Christmas trees from 2019 to 2023 — with 42% of these fires starting in the home’s living room. This means that Christmas tree fires are nearly six times less common than fires that originate with other holiday decorations.^[2]

Safety Tips To Prevent Christmas Fires

Below, you’ll learn several fire safety tips that can help you prevent holiday fires altogether or keep fires that do spring up from causing serious property damage, injury or death.

Water Your Live Christmas Tree Daily

If you opt for a live Christmas tree rather than an artificial one, water it daily to minimize the risk of fire.^[3] A 2020 study found that a dry tree ignited rapidly, reaching its peak temperature and becoming engulfed in flames within about 30 seconds of ignition. Conversely, researchers made multiple attempts to light a watered tree, but each time the tree failed to ignite or the flames extinguished before causing significant damage.^[4]

Place Your Tree Away From Heat Sources

It’s recommended that you position your Christmas tree at least three feet away from any heat source that could spark a fire, such as a fireplace, radiator, space heater, candle or vent.^[3] If you fail to do so, pine needles could fall into these heat sources and ignite — especially if they’re dry and brittle. Even fake trees can melt or catch fire if they’re displayed too close to something emitting a great deal of heat.

Consider a Fire-Resistant Artificial Christmas Tree

Whenever you shop for a fake tree that you can reuse annually, consider investing in one with fire-retardant properties. The product box label should indicate whether an artificial tree is fire resistant. Of course, you still need to set up your Christmas tree at an appropriate distance from any potential fire starters, as even fire-resistant trees may not be 100% fireproof.

Practice Christmas Lights Safety

There are several steps you can take to protect your home from fires caused by Christmas lights, including both lights on your tree and other holiday lights you may set up around or outside of your house. For example, considering doing the following:^[5]

• Turn your lights off whenever you aren’t home
• Avoid linking more than three strands of lights together and use extension cords to keep from overloading your electrical outlets
• Periodically make sure your Christmas light wires are not warm to the touch
• Ensure your lights and other decorations do not block any exits
• Annually inspect your lights for frayed wires, bare spots, insulation gaps, broken or cracked sockets and excessive kinking or wear
• Refrain from using lights that have not been listed by an approved testing laboratory
• Bring your outdoor lights inside after the holidays are over to minimize fire hazards and wear and tear

Don’t Overload Power Strips

Overloading a power strip can melt the plastic and cause electrical fires. To avoid this issue, space your lights and other electrical decor throughout your home, be on the lookout for cracked or broken sockets and frayed or bare wires and replace worn-out power strips. Also, it’s best to plug your space heaters into wall outlets rather than power strips.

A power strip may be unable to supply the energy needed to power a space heater, potentially causing it to overheat and pose a serious fire risk.

Be Cautious When Using Candles

Always extinguish any candles that are currently lit before leaving a room for an extended period of time. According to a 2020 survey conducted by the American Red Cross, about one-third of respondents had either left a room with unattended candles or fallen asleep without putting their candles out.^[6] Doing so creates a significant fire risk during the winter months.

Additionally, if you plan to use a menorah, a kinara or another type of candle for a holiday or cultural celebration, it’s generally a good idea to place it on a heat-resistant surface so you won’t have to worry about damage caused by melting candle wax. Similarly, place your candles at least one foot away from flammable objects or materials, and make sure the candles can’t be easily knocked over.^[3]

Confirm Your Fire Alarms Are Working Properly

Before inviting people over this holiday season, test the smoke detectors, fire alarms or smart home devices that can quickly alert you when there is a dangerous fire hazard to make sure those devices are functioning properly. If the alarm produces little or no sound when you press the test button, either replace the batteries or install a new alarm. Generally, it’s recommended that you replace your smoke alarm at least once every 10 years.^[7]

Check Your Fireplace

As part of your annual fall home maintenance checklist, hire a professional to inspect your fireplace for structural integrity issues, damage, wear and tear or soot buildup that could affect performance. If you notice rust, discoloration, vegetation growth or brick deterioration in your fireplace or chimney, your fireplace may be unsafe to use. Meanwhile, always use a fireplace screen to contain embers, and extinguish the fire completely before heading to bed.

Make sure you only burn seasoned logs — other items, like wrapping paper, could cause excessively large flames, potentially leading to a serious chimney fire.^[5]

Be Safe When Using the Oven

Adhering to stovetop and oven safety tips like these can help you mitigate the risk of starting a kitchen fire while you cook for a holiday gathering:

• Keep flammable items away from the stove and oven
• Remove anything currently in your oven before preheating it
• Take flammable packaging off of precooked meals before reheating them in the oven
• Clear old food particles from your stovetop and the inside of your oven so they don’t ignite while you cook
• Turn off burners and remove cooking equipment from the stovetop after you finish cooking

Keep Fire Extinguishers on Hand

Fire extinguishers are crucial for stopping the spread of a fire before it consumes your home. Every homeowner should store, maintain and understand how to operate a fire extinguisher — especially those living in areas assigned a poor fire protection class. Ideally, you should have a clearly visible fire extinguisher in every part of your home with a high fire risk, like in the kitchen, by your fireplace and around your heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units.

Before setting up your Christmas decorations, check whether the pressure gauge on your fire extinguisher shows that it is in the green charge zone. If it is overcharged or undercharged, you need to contact a fire extinguisher servicing company to perform routine maintenance. Otherwise, your fire extinguisher may malfunction when you need it most.

Have a Plan for Yourself, Your Family and Your Guests

In case all else fails, have a plan in place so everyone in your home knows how to respond if a fire breaks out during your holiday gathering. Even if you think you can put out the fire on your own, it’s generally a good idea to call 911 right away so firefighters will be en route to your location. If you’re unable to extinguish the fire, everyone in your house should evacuate and wait outside until help arrives.

What Type of Insurance Will Cover You in the Event of a Christmas Tree Fire?

Standard homeowners insurance policies include multiple types of coverage for fire damage and other related losses. Depending on the circumstances, the following homeowners insurance coverage types may take effect in the aftermath of a house fire:

1. Dwelling: Your dwelling insurance will cover any damage a fire causes to the physical structure of your home, including your walls and roof.
2. Other structures: If the fire spreads to a detached structure — like a shed, fence, guest house or unattached garage — your other structures coverage will come into play.
3. Personal property: Fire damage to your belongings — such as furniture, electronics and clothing — is covered by your personal property insurance.
4. Loss of use: After a fire leaves your home uninhabitable, loss of use coverage can reimburse you for additional living expenses, like temporary hotel stays and restaurant meals.
5. Personal liability: Personal liability insurance can cover legal fees if someone sues you due to a fire. For example, your personal liability coverage may step in if a fire spreads from your house to the house next door and your neighbor believes the fire started because of your negligence.
6. Medical payments: Through medical payments coverage, your insurance company may cover a guest’s medical bills if they incur minor burns due to a fire on your property.

As soon as it is safe to do so, you can contact your insurance carrier to file a homeowners insurance claim and get reimbursed for your losses — up to your policy limits. You’ll need to submit documentation that is relevant to your claim, which may include pictures of damaged property and a home inventory listing the value of each of your lost possessions.