The Dangers of Christmas Lights

Christmas lights are beautiful and are always fun to see as you drive through your neighborhood, but if they aren’t placed properly, in a safe area, and are forgotten, they are potentially very dangerous. Fires during the holiday season should be reserved for fireplaces only. Here are some ways to keep your home beautiful, festive, and flameless. 

Turn Your Lights Off 

We highly encourage you to keep your lights off when you aren’t home and once you have gone to bed. It’s sort of like when people tell you to never leave a candle unattended. Do not leave your lights unattended. If anything were to happen, you should be able to react quickly, call authorities, and get everyone to safety. You never want to leave your lights on while you go run a quick errand to come back and see some pretty significant damage. 

Keep Out of Reach of Children

Please try to not let any small children play with your Christmas lights. They can look, but they cannot touch. They can possibly get shocked or damage the Christmas lights in ways that may eventually lead to something more dangerous. Christmas lights are very pretty, but it’s best to keep them in a place where small children can’t reach them. 

Place Them Wisely

Be careful with where you end up putting your Christmas lights. It’s probably not the greatest idea to place them right above your fireplace. You do not need an even bigger fire. Avoid placing them near space heaters, candles, or loose paper. Just keep them away from anything hot that can catch on fire or anything that already is on fire. 

Check for Damages

Don’t put up your Christmas lights if you find any damage on them. Do not plug in your lights anywhere if you notice fraying in the cable or damaged bulbs. Frayed lights can lead to an electrical short, which can damage any other lights that you may have up and, like other things on this list, cause a fire. Also, no one wants to get shocked on Christmas, so don’t let that happen. 

This holiday season, let’s keep the flames in the fireplace. Christmas light related accidents are, for the most part, completely preventable. No one wants electrical damage to their home, but if that does happen, Omega Electrical & Mechanical Engineering is here to help. Accidents happen, so don’t be afraid to give us a call.