Christmas tree fire footage

Take a look at our dramatic footage of a Christmas tree catching fire.

The footage (available to view below) shows a Christmas tree which has been in a dry warm home for several days catching fire and within 10 seconds the whole of the room is completely engulfed in fire. Even if a person was awake in the room they probably would not have been able to escape.

View the footage of the Christmas tree fire (1.57 MB)

On the back of the footage, County Fire Officer Barry Dixon has issue the following safety advice, “Before placing lights on your tree make sure the wiring has been checked for splits, don’t take any chances, replace damaged sets with new ones with the CE or BS kitemark also making sure they are fitted with the right fuse. Always switch them off and unplug them when you go to bed or leave the house. Never put candles or any source of flames on or near your tree and make sure that presents placed under the tree are kept well away from anything which could ignite the wrapping paper.

But most importantly of all make sure you test your smoke alarm and if you haven’t already got one why not buy one as stocking filler – and make sure you have one properly fitted on each level of your home.”

In Christmas 2006 the fire service attended 115 accidental fires in the home. (24.12.06 to 5.1.07).  

For your free home fire safety check call 0800 555 815.

Image courtesy of Stock.XCHNG