CFD hopes to reduce holiday fires

Operation Red Wreath brings awareness to fires during the holiday season.

By Katherine Miller

Published Dec. 4, 2008

The Columbia Fire Department is raising awareness with its Operation Red Wreath program, a campaign designed to promote a holiday season free from the devastation of a fire.

A wreath with red Christmas lights will be displayed at the Tenth Street station starting this week and lasting until Jan. 4. If a fire related to holiday activities occurs in that time frame, one of the lights will be changed to white to commemorate the fire and raise awareness.

"It's an annual event that we've been doing for about seven or eight years now," Battalion Chief Steven Sapp said. "It's mostly an awareness campaign and a challenge to the residents not to let this holiday season be damaged by fire in the home which could cause property damage, or worse, injury or death."

The fire department originally received the idea from the Joliet Fire Department in Illinois, which had published a piece about their own operation in a trade journal.

Sapp said the holiday season makes residents particularly vulnerable to fires for a variety of reasons. Candles, often used for religious holiday traditions, can be placed too close to combustible materials and start a fire. Cold weather also causes an increase in the use of portable heaters, furnaces, wood stoves and fireplaces, which can quickly become a fire hazard. However, holiday cooking left unattended is the biggest danger.

"We already know that unattended cooking fires are the leading causes of fires in Columbia, and they're one of the three leading causes of fires across the United States, according to the National Fire Association," Sapp said.

The most important tip the CFD recommends is to make sure each home has a working smoke alarm, which can increase a person's chance of escaping from a fire unharmed by more than 50 percent. Sapp estimates that about 96 to 98 percent of homes have smoke alarms, but only about half of them actually work.

"That's not only the message for Operation Red Wreath, but year-round, is to make sure you have working smoke alarms and to make sure you have fire escape plans," Sapp said.

The department reported three fires in 2006 that were related to holiday incidents. Last year, no fires were reported, and the department hopes to continue that trend.

"That's really the purpose of the campaign," Sapp said. "We don't really want to report a single incident. I think the community over the past seven or eight years has responded very well. We've seen a maximum of two or three incidents per year. We'd like that number to remain at zero and keep the number as low as possible."