wood stoves and fresh Christmas trees

[firefighterjake]

Dammit, you people with your real life anecdotes, don't tell my wife, we'll be in for $60 every year now. So, I guess the key is to keep it watered....

$60. Wow! Sure makes me happy when every year I walk out behind the house with a saw and bring back a tree. Shoot, we have a neighbor out of work so I invited him to also come cut a tree for his family. Dang, I love living in the country!

Just make sure you don't do what my dad did one year when he volunteered to bring a Christmas tree into my elementary school (back when it was legal to do so) . . . ended up cutting down a beautiful Christmas tree with a perfect shape . . . too bad it turned out to be "cat spruce" . . . looked nice . . . smelled terrible . . . like cat urine when it warmed up inside the classroom. Never asked or volunteered to bring a tree into school . . . or anywhere else after that incident.

 

[firefighterjake]

Dennis is right. I saw the other threads that Jake gave out the real info. Bottom line is the only way a tree will burn like that video is if it is totally dried out (as in no water for a month dry). [b]Yes . . . it's funny. Folks -- even here -- preach about the need to season wood for months to get the wood to burn easily . . . and yet when it comes to Christmas trees suddenly they think these things are like crumpled newspaper and are against them even if they're only inside for a few days or a few weeks. Don't get me wrong. There is a danger . . . if you allow them to dry out . . . just keep them well watered.
Just keep it watered and you are fine.[/b]


I have our real tree in the same room as the hearth and its nowhere near 15ft away. No issues. Even the day we take it down in Jan it probably still wont lite if you put a match to it. . . . or a plumber's propane torch as I did once . . . on live TV . . . back in my younger days. When I was a kid we always did the same with my Dad's old '79 resolute and Im still here to tell the tale

 

[firefighterjake]

Many years ago we lived in a house with a fireplace and had the tree in the same room. While we were taking down the tree one day in Feb-March, some one threw a branch into the fire. It was amazing how quick it incinrerated.

Poof, gone!

It really hit home how flamable this tree was at the end of the season. Now that I'm older I have a small artificial tree for reasons other than flamability, money and convienience, mostly. But I also enjoy one less fire hazard in my house.

Bah Humbug!

I think the issue here is of time . . . generally we do not recommend keeping a tree up this long . . . I mean February or March??? Why so long?

 

[firefighterjake]

Dammit, you people with your real life anecdotes, don't tell my wife, we'll be in for $60 every year now. So, I guess the key is to keep it watered....

Yes . . . keep it well watered . . . after making a fresh cut after you buy the tree.

 

[firefighterjake]

It's an annual topic. Cut at least an inch off the bottom of the tree before putting it in the stand. Keep the tree watered. When it stops taking up water it will start to dry out. Once the tree is fully dry and needles are dropping it's time to remove it. There is probably as much or more danger from the old style incandescent bulbs starting a tree fire at that point as there is from the stove unless it's really close by. (And that would be bad to do at any time, synthetic, fresh or not.)

As a matter of fact you are dead on BeGreen . . . the cause of most Christmas trees catching on fire is from the lights . . . in fact it is the lights that are the issue . . . and of course if you have an electrical problem even an artificial tree can present a problem.

Incidentally . . . sounds like you remember the 1970s vintage light bulbs that would burn you if you touched them for a second or two . . . the 1970s vintage lights that could heat a small apartment without any other form of heat . . .

 

[firefighterjake]

Fires with real Christmas trees is mostly a myth! This probably started when in the old days people used candles on their trees. Not a good thing to do!

I hope our friend Firefighter Jake gets to this thread to help set it straight. He had a good thread about this (but I won't search for it) and it seems to me he was invited to speak about fires with real Christmas trees....and he couldn't get it to even burn.

We've always had real trees and have never had a problem. One thing we do though is cut our own tree, then add sugar to the water and make sure the tree does not run out of water. It should be good for at least a month without losing a lot of needles. That is, if it is not a spruce. Scotch pine keeps the needles well. Spruce are pretty but make a poor Christmas tree.

btw, yes, we have the tree in the stove room and it sits about 12' from the stove.

Fact: Less than 1% of all fires are started by Christmas trees . . . but let's face it . . . us firefighters grew up seeing these same videos of trees going up in flames and figure it's very dramatic . . . and a whole lot sexier than talking about how many more fires are caused by cooking fires, heating equipment and electrical problems. Of course, we try not to let the fact that many of these fires are caused by trees that haven't been watered for days . . . or even weeks.

Fact: 2.5 deaths are attributed to Christmas tree fires. Not to trivialize this number since I hate to see anyone die in fire . . . but the number of people dying from fires caused by just about every other cause of fire you can come up with is far, far greater -- cooking, electrical, heating equipment, candles, arson, etc. I guess my belief is that we tend to lose focus on the facts.

As stated there can be a fire hazard . . . but then again . . . not maintaining your woodstove can also be a pretty big hazard . . . and truth be told . . . your woodstove is a far, far greater fire hazard than a Christmas tree ever will be. That said . . . cut an inch off the butt of the tree . . . water it every day . . . sometimes more frequently if you have pets or high heat . . . keep it as far away from heat sources as you can to minimize drying. Technically, you could just have it at the minimum distance from the stove for combustibles . . . and to be safe have it farther away in case it accidentally tips over . . . but the best thing to do would be to locate it as far away as possible . . . again to minimize drying . . . the tree will not spontaneously burst into flame -- much like the fact our wood piles do not spontaneously burst into flame when they season.

As for the videos all showing trees going up in seconds . . . the questions to ask yourself are these . . . 1) how long was the tree not watered? and 2) did the folks doing the shoot "help" the fire at all -- one video out there actually has a firefighter dumping gasoline into the tree stand to really make the fire more impressive.

One more fact . . . and no offense to Dennis who is usually right on the mark . . . except for when it comes to how he splits his wood . . . sugar doesn't do anything for the tree . . . but it also doesn't hurt things.