Boone County Fire asks residents to help prevent household accidents
Boone County Fire Protection District is asking residents to be careful and avoid distractions during the holidays to help prevent household accidents.
Chief Gale Blomenkamp with Boone County Fire said there aren’t necessarily more fires around the holidays, but different causes like heating fires from space heaters and chimneys or kitchen fires. He said there are steps to help avoid kitchen fires.
“Turn your pot handles to the inside of the stove, so you don’t catch them with a hip or a longer sweater,” Blomenkamp said. “Same thing with sleeves, watch your long sleeves that you don’t catch them on fire with a gas stove.”
He said it’s also important to keep kids and pets away from the kitchen to avoid tripping and everyone should have a fire extinguisher in case of emergencies.
Along with kitchen fires, Blomenkamp said Christmas trees can spark fires if they get too dry or have frayed lighting, so it’s a good idea to watch where you put them.
“A lot of people like to put them in living room windows, but we’ve also seen them near the front doors,” he said. “If that tree lights up that’s now blocked your exit.”
Blomenkamp said it can be easy to avoid household accidents and it doesn’t take anything new to prevent them.
“You know, typical safety things that people think about, but now we’ve got four extra people or we’ve got ten extra people in my house and I’m talking,” he said. “We’re visiting and so it’s the distractions that could cause issues.”
