Candle Safety Should Be Primary Focus of Any Candle Use

Candles are a staple of the holidays. Many enjoy the glow of candles for a quiet evening at home or to give ambiance during a party. Candle use is rooted in history before electricity when candles played a much bigger role in providing light.

Before electric light bulbs, candles even graced Christmas trees. Lit candles on Christmas trees also caused untold damaged and loss of life when an evergreen branch caught fire. Today we don't use candles on our Christmas trees. Still, candles add a nice touch to decorations and seem a perfect fit for holidays such as Christmas and Easter as well as celebrations of other faiths. But to prevent disaster we need to take precautions to make sure candle safety is observed and our celebrations do not turn into tragedies.

Already this fall, several house fires in our town turned out to be caused by either a candle left untended or somehow dislodged from its holder. These happened before the approach of the Christmas and other holidays.

Candle safety must be a priority during the holiday season, the Christmas season and whenever candles are used.

Make sure before lighting a candle that the bottom is flat, even if that means shaving it to fit the holder.

Make sure the candle does not tip easily. One way to keep a candle solid is to drip wax into the holder and set the candle on the soft wax. As it hardens the candle is held upright. (Don't just depend on this method.)

Make sure the candle holder is not easily tipped.

When we set candles all over the house, sometimes we don't think of safety first. One year, I noticed the candles on my hutch needed to be moved further to the edge of the lower shelf so as not to be directly under the overhang of the unit above. Overhands can present a safety problem when placing candles on shelves. Make sure there is no obstructions above the candle.

When putting candles in windows, to be safe, make sure the area on which the candle sits is flat and the candle is stable. We have a bench in front of our front window. I don't use real candles in our windows for fear someone would lean back and dislodge them. Safety dictates in this situation real candles are not the answer.

When using candles within glass containers, make sure the candle doesn't wear down so the flame is against the glass itself. I've had candles not only blacken, but actually shatter from this situation. Obviously, I wasn't paying enough attention to how the candle was burning and wasn't being as safety conscientious as I should have been.

Leaving candles burning while you leave the room for protracted amounts of time is also not a good idea and certainly not a safety conscious one. It is easy to forget a candle has been lit. Candles burn down or tip over or a flame may touch something flammable. Be safety conscious and not leave candles burning in rooms in which you are not present.

Candles seldom are used alone. We adorn them with wreaths of real or plastic materials. We need to make sure to keep candle flames away from flammable material-that includes decorations around or near the candle. How far does a candle need to burn before it reaches the decorations?

We can enjoy the soft glow of candles during Christmas or other holidays and all year long as long as we are safety conscious and use these common sense tips.

Enjoy the candle light.