Speaker 1: Harry, Let's get right to it, because I was thinking
Speaker 1: about when you sent me this email last night. I'm
Speaker 1: looking around my house and you know, we have a
Speaker 1: fireplace right in the middle of the living room, you know,
Speaker 1: the whole nine yards. We're going to talk about home
Speaker 1: safety tips for the holidays. Let's start with we have
Speaker 1: a live tree. Let's start how important is it to
Speaker 1: continue to make sure that thing has water on?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's so important. You ever see any of those
Speaker 2: videos when they actually light to Christmas?
Speaker 1: Yes, I have a friend of mine that does it
Speaker 1: outside every year, and I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 2: It is unbelievable how quickly it gets consumed. So we
Speaker 2: don't want it to dry out. And a lot of
Speaker 2: this is just common sense, but it needs to be
Speaker 2: repeated every year. Don't put the Christmas tree over a
Speaker 2: register vent that's blowing warm air on it. Not that
Speaker 2: it's going to catch fire, but you're going to dry
Speaker 2: it out. Make sure. And when you first cut that
Speaker 2: tree and cut the little you know, stump down at
Speaker 2: the bottom, open up the and let us start drinking water.
Speaker 2: It's amazing. You're gonna You're gonna fill up that stand
Speaker 2: every day, every day, okay, and it'll take about two
Speaker 2: or three weeks before it starts sealing off. So keep
Speaker 2: it really watered, I mean from a standpoint of just
Speaker 2: keeping it from drying out.
Speaker 1: So important. Okay, that's number one. And then I started
Speaker 1: paying attention. I talked about the fireplace right and hanging
Speaker 1: garland that could be hanging down off the mantle, say
Speaker 1: above it, and you don't want that obviously, right.
Speaker 2: Right right, and and kind of the same way. I
Speaker 2: guess a lot of it depends, I'm on what type
Speaker 2: of garden you know, you got that foil garden and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. How much heat comes out of the
Speaker 2: fire box and just kind of warms that mantle. But
Speaker 2: you don't want to be hanging evergreens there. And I
Speaker 2: see it all the time this time of year, and
Speaker 2: I'll even say something to the people like them, So.
Speaker 3: You guys use that fireplace during the holidays and it's
Speaker 3: always yeah, you know, we always make a good fire
Speaker 3: and Christmas, and go like what you know, I just
Speaker 3: I'm not trying to be you know.
Speaker 2: Nosy, but I wouldn't put that garland there. And then
Speaker 2: they look and they go, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Because I do have a question for you on that
Speaker 1: one though, is the fake garland stuff is flammable? As
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people will go out and
Speaker 1: then they'll you know, when they get their tree, they'll
Speaker 1: get the garland that you know is live for all
Speaker 1: intents and purposes. Is there a difference as far as
Speaker 1: being more flammable, Well.
Speaker 2: There is to a degree. So some of them will
Speaker 2: say flammable. In fact most of them will, okay, but
Speaker 2: it's nothing like a real live garland. Again, going back
Speaker 2: to the story about the Christmas tree, how fastly it
Speaker 2: can busts. This would lot of your garden garland's plastic.
Speaker 2: It may melt or kind of warp. So I was
Speaker 2: really kind of focusing on the live. But it's really
Speaker 2: not a good place to put garland anyway because there's
Speaker 2: a lot of heat coming out of that firebox.
Speaker 1: Yes there is, okay, now talking about a lot of folks,
Speaker 1: I've seen it done. They burn the gift wrapping, yeah,
Speaker 1: or boxes right right in a fireplace after people open
Speaker 1: them up.
Speaker 4: Not a good idea, it's not, it really is.
Speaker 2: And here's the story on that. So I think a
Speaker 2: couple months ago we might have talked about making sure
Speaker 2: the chimney is clean, making sure the creoso's gone out
Speaker 2: of the chimney. It's flammable, make sure you haven't had
Speaker 2: a chimney fire. Let's say you didn't heed the advice
Speaker 2: and you don't know when you had that chimney cleaner inspected.
Speaker 2: If there's kreosode in there, it catches fire with real
Speaker 2: hot quick fires, which is exactly what paper produces.
Speaker 1: And so that would be more reason than to follow
Speaker 1: that up based on those of us that have seen
Speaker 1: a Christmas tree and the way it ignites and burns
Speaker 1: almost immediately.
Speaker 4: Sure don't burn tree trimmings in the fire place.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it happens all the time. I mean, it
Speaker 2: happens all the time. And you know, once we get
Speaker 2: to November, I'm sure you know, you watch the news
Speaker 2: and there's there's a house fire almost every other no
Speaker 2: doubt about it, and they never say what caused it.
Speaker 2: But we don't have those problems in the summer, and
Speaker 2: a lot of times it's just because we've got everything inside.
Speaker 2: People are burning fires, they're cooking more, et cetera. So
Speaker 2: I know these are common sensical, but boy, just just
Speaker 2: think about it. What happens it's pretty You throw the
Speaker 2: paper in there and maybe you get a little different
Speaker 2: color of flames. But that's burning so hot, and if
Speaker 2: that chimney's dirty, you run the risk of a chimney fire.
Speaker 2: And if you've already had a chimney fire and that
Speaker 2: liner's cracked, you run the risk of starting the house fire.
Speaker 1: Okay, sometimes my wife does this from time to time,
Speaker 1: where she'll close the flume right, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'll fire up the you know, the fireplace,
Speaker 1: and then you know, smoke is everywhere now. Cracking the
Speaker 1: window certainly helps, right m M. Anything else that the
Speaker 1: well recommend, it's the.
Speaker 2: Real deal too, Not so much as that. I mean,
Speaker 2: it certainly would do that if the damper was closed.
Speaker 2: But a lot of times it's negative air pressure inside
Speaker 2: our homes. So remember, you build a fire, it creates heat,
Speaker 2: It warms the chimney, and it creates a drawl bringing
Speaker 2: the smoke out. But if you got the kitchen fan
Speaker 2: and somebody's doing a cooking and it's a ventilating fan,
Speaker 2: that's pulling air, and that's pulling air down the chimney,
Speaker 2: or the bathroom fan, it's pulling air down the chimney,
Speaker 2: so you get a negative air pressure inside the house,
Speaker 2: you start a fire, and the smoke can't really warm
Speaker 2: up the chimney, so it starts coming into the house.
Speaker 2: That's not a good look. No, just crack the window.
Speaker 1: So now, now here's the one that these things terrify me.
Speaker 1: They always have. I don't know why. I never had
Speaker 1: a bad experience from them, but talking about space heaters,
Speaker 1: these things just scare me to death. Now, there are
Speaker 1: certain places, in certain ways that you would suggest do
Speaker 1: not do these things. If you're using a space heater,
Speaker 1: what would they do well?
Speaker 2: For sure? And if people read the directions and all
Speaker 2: people do Number one, a lot of them will say
Speaker 2: don't use in bathrooms for just basic reason. A lot
Speaker 2: of water. Make sure they're ul listed, make sure it
Speaker 2: has a ground false circuit interrupter on the plug of
Speaker 2: that space heater. And the number one thing is people
Speaker 2: get a space heater and then they run a lamp
Speaker 2: cord extension cord that's fifteen feet long.
Speaker 4: That's a no no.
Speaker 2: It tells you do not use extension cords with this.
Speaker 2: Those things are pulling about fifteen hundred watts. That's a
Speaker 2: lot of juice. So no extension cords on a space heater,
Speaker 2: and don't run them under the carpet or under a
Speaker 2: throw rug in a doorway or in the family room.
Speaker 2: People walk over that carpet. It's abrasive on the back
Speaker 2: with jute. So no, no to the extension cords, and
Speaker 2: read the directions. And if you're going to buy one,
Speaker 2: see what that thing is actually designed to be, how
Speaker 2: it's designed to be used, and keep flammables away from
Speaker 2: these things, you know, like blankets and stuff about it.
Speaker 1: Well, and with all that in mind, a lot of
Speaker 1: us have a fire extinguisher. Probably a lot more of
Speaker 1: us do not.
Speaker 2: Boy, I agree with that. And then the next big
Speaker 2: question is doeserve by the family know how to use it? Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I'll bet you a lot of people driving right
Speaker 2: now said no. No.
Speaker 4: There's you know, the old the old fire extingus.
Speaker 2: You know, pull the pin, you take, you aim, you
Speaker 2: sweep at the base of the fire. But there's a
Speaker 2: lot of fire extinguishers out there now that come in
Speaker 2: almost it's almost like an aerosol, like an aerosol campaign,
Speaker 2: only it's about twice as big as an aerosol, has
Speaker 2: as much power as a regular good sized fire extinguisher
Speaker 2: so they can be conveniently located. They're inexpensive and there's
Speaker 2: no mystery. I mean you it's like aerosol. You press
Speaker 2: the button down on the top and it's blowing out
Speaker 2: the powder and putting out the fire. It's an ABC,
Speaker 2: so it takes care of you know, all types of fires.
Speaker 2: But man, today they just go you know, fireplace, no fireplace,
Speaker 2: a lot of cooking. If you do anything at all
Speaker 2: and you don't have one, go buy one today and
Speaker 2: put it in the kitchen cabinet underneath the stove, okay,
Speaker 2: and you can probably get to the garage with it.
Speaker 2: You could probably get to the fireplace with it. You
Speaker 2: can get to the cooking. But there's nothing worse than
Speaker 2: having a kitchen fire or something like that and you
Speaker 2: have nothing.
Speaker 1: All right, I got less than a minute. Last thing
Speaker 1: that I found interesting you put on here about trimming
Speaker 1: candle wicks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's another thing. Number one we all know,
Speaker 2: blowout the candles before we go to bed. Before you
Speaker 2: light it again, make sure it's just got about a
Speaker 2: quarter inch wick at the top. Tom. If it's got
Speaker 2: a real long one, you'll get a real long flame.
Speaker 2: It'll produce a lot of smoke. You can kind of,
Speaker 2: you know, you can kind of start messing up your
Speaker 2: walls if you're burning them a long time with the
Speaker 2: long wick, So trim those wicks down. The base of
Speaker 2: a pillar candle should almost be two times the size.
Speaker 2: Add the pillar candle, make sure it's good and steady,
Speaker 2: and stay safe.
Speaker 4: Amen. Merry Christmas to you, my friend. You are the
Speaker 4: very very best. Tom.
Speaker 2: You have a merry Christmas too. Well talk in a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks.
Speaker 4: I guess I'll look forward to it, all right. God
Speaker 4: speed ahead.