Holiday Fire Safety Tips

The holidays are a time for enjoyment with family and friends. Have an enjoyable holiday season with these fire safety tips:

• Have your heating system, water heater and any other gas, oil, or coal burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician every year
• Have your chimney checked or cleaned every year. Chimneys can be blocked by debris. This can cause CO to build up inside your home or cabin.
• Install a battery-operated CO detector in your home and check or replace the battery when you change the time on your clocks each spring and fall.
• Never leave the cooking area unattended.
• Portable heaters need at least 3 feet of empty space between the heater and everything else like furniture, curtains, papers and people.
• Don't place towels, napkins or other paper products around the stove surface.
• Install smoke alarms in every home, on every level, outside each sleeping area and in each bedroom.
• Replace batteries twice a year during daylight savings.
• Test your smoke alarms every month.

"We are urging you to buy smoke detectors and Carbon Monoxide alarms to protect your family and home from fire," says James Breen, Fire Chief of the Albuquerque Fire Department. "A working smoke alarm alerts you to a fire and more than doubles your chances of surviving a fire."