Halloween Safety

With Halloween right around the corner, careful planning can make the holiday a fun and fire-safe one. During the five-year-period of 2006 to 2010, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimates that decorations were the item first ignited in an estimated average of 1,000 reported home structure fires per year. These fires caused an estimated average six civilian deaths, 53 civilian injuries and $16 million in direct property damage per year. To stay safe this Halloween season, here are a few tips we recommend:

  1. When choosing a costume, stay away from billowing or long trailing fabric. If you are making your own costume, choose material that won't easily ignite if it comes into contact with heat or flame. If your child is wearing a mask, make sure the eye holes are large enough so they can see out. Also, be sure that costumes and decorations are made with flame resistant materials.
  2. Provide children with flashlights to carry for lighting or glow sticks as part of their costume.
  3. Dried flowers, cornstalks and crepe paper are highly flammable. Keep these and other decorations well away from all open flames and heat sources, including light bulbs and heaters.
  4. It is safest to use a flashlight or battery-operated candles in a jack-o-lantern. If you use a real candle, use extreme caution. Make sure children are watched at all times when candles are lit. When lighting candles inside jack-o-lanterns, use long fireplace-style matches or a utility lighter. Be sure to place lit pumpkins well away from anything that can burn and far enough out of way of trick-or-treaters, doorsteps, walkways and yards.
  5. Remember to keep exits clear of decorations, so nothing blocks escape routes.
  6. Tell children to stay away from open flames. Be sure they know how to stop, drop and roll if their clothing catches fire. (Have them practice stopping immediately, dropping to the ground, covering their face with hands, and rolling over and over to put the flames out.)
  7. Use flashlights as alternatives to candles or torch lights when decorating walkways and yards. They are much safer for trick-or-treaters, whose costumes may brush against the lighting.
  8. If your children are going to Halloween parties at others' homes, have them look for ways out of the home and plan how they would get out in an emergency.
  9. Remind children to never eat treats until they have been inspected by an adult.