In December, emergency services extinguish twice as many living-room fires as in […]
In December, emergency services extinguish twice as many living-room fires as in the other months of the year. A well-watered Christmas tree keeps its festive glow and significantly reduces the risk of fire, according to a new fire test conducted by DBI and Danish Emergency Management Organisation.
You only have a few seconds to react if your living room catches fire at Christmas. New data from the Danish Emergency Services’ platform ODIN documents that lit candles on a dry Christmas tree create an extremely fire-prone December cocktail. The data shows that there are twice as many fires in people’s living rooms in December compared with the average of the rest of the year.
From January to November, an average of 37 fires per month occurred in Danish living rooms between 2020 and 2024. In December, the number rises to 83.
Although the statistics do not specify the cause of the fires, DBI Fire Safety Advisor Marcello Francati has no doubt that the sharp increase is linked to people’s fondness for real candles on Christmas trees and decorations.
“It’s quite obvious. It takes almost nothing for a dry Christmas decoration or a tree that has been indoors for a couple of weeks without water to go up in flames. It happens extremely fast and generates very large amounts of heat in a very short time,” says Marcello Francati.
Fire test: dry vs. fresh Christmas tree
To underline the point, DBI and Danish Emergency Management Organisation tested how quickly a Christmas tree burns.
The test was conducted twice using Norway spruces that were felled two weeks before the fire test: First with a tree that had been kept outdoors in a stand filled with water, and then with a tree that had been kept in a warm living room without water. Both trees had temperature sensors installed at heights of 1 and 2 metres.
When the gas burner is directed at the first spruce, not much happens. The needles around the blue flame briefly glow yellowish and end up as small glowing sticks. But the fire does not spread beyond the gas flame.
“It fizzles out – in a good way. We can’t really get the tree to burn, which clearly demonstrates how important it is for fire safety that the tree has been watered and kept cool,” says Marcello Francati.
Engulfed in flames in seconds
The second, bone-dry spruce behaves completely differently:
Within seconds, the entire tree is engulfed in flames, and thick grey smoke fills the burn container along with intense radiant heat. The baubles melt and send burning plastic droplets onto the floor. After 45 seconds, the tree is reduced to a red-hot skeleton – and if the test had been carried out in a flat, the entire living room would have been fully involved and engulfed in flames.
“You only have a few seconds to react before the fire becomes too powerful. Our temperature sensors show 800 degrees after just 30 seconds, and at that point the fire is so large that it’s a job for the fire brigade,” says Marcello Francati.
DBI’s 9 tips for a fire-safe Christmas:
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