December 18, 2025 • 9 mins
Keeping yourself safe during the holiday season with Gary.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Harry, Let's get right to it, because I was thinking
about when you sent me this email last night. I'm
looking around my house and you know, we have a
fireplace right in the middle of the living room, you know,
the whole nine yards. We're going to talk about home
safety tips for the holidays. Let's start with we have
a live tree. Let's start how important is it to
(00:23):
continue to make sure that thing has water on?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh, it's so important. You ever see any of those
videos when they actually light to Christmas?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yes, I have a friend of mine that does it
outside every year, and I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It is unbelievable how quickly it gets consumed. So we
don't want it to dry out. And a lot of
this is just common sense, but it needs to be
repeated every year. Don't put the Christmas tree over a
register vent that's blowing warm air on it. Not that
it's going to catch fire, but you're going to dry
it out. Make sure. And when you first cut that
tree and cut the little you know, stump down at
(00:58):
the bottom, open up the and let us start drinking water.
It's amazing. You're gonna You're gonna fill up that stand
every day, every day, okay, and it'll take about two
or three weeks before it starts sealing off. So keep
it really watered, I mean from a standpoint of just
keeping it from drying out.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So important. Okay, that's number one. And then I started
paying attention. I talked about the fireplace right and hanging
garland that could be hanging down off the mantle, say
above it, and you don't want that obviously, right.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Right right, and and kind of the same way. I
guess a lot of it depends, I'm on what type
of garden you know, you got that foil garden and
stuff like that. How much heat comes out of the
fire box and just kind of warms that mantle. But
you don't want to be hanging evergreens there. And I
see it all the time this time of year, and
I'll even say something to the people like them, So.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You guys use that fireplace during the holidays and it's
always yeah, you know, we always make a good fire
and Christmas, and go like what you know, I just
I'm not trying to be you know.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Nosy, but I wouldn't put that garland there. And then
they look and they go, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Because I do have a question for you on that
one though, is the fake garland stuff is flammable? As
you know, a lot of people will go out and
then they'll you know, when they get their tree, they'll
get the garland that you know is live for all
intents and purposes. Is there a difference as far as
being more flammable, Well.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
There is to a degree. So some of them will
say flammable. In fact most of them will, okay, but
it's nothing like a real live garland. Again, going back
to the story about the Christmas tree, how fastly it
can busts. This would lot of your garden garland's plastic.
It may melt or kind of warp. So I was
(02:48):
really kind of focusing on the live. But it's really
not a good place to put garland anyway because there's
a lot of heat coming out of that firebox.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yes there is, okay, now talking about a lot of folks,
I've seen it done. They burn the gift wrapping, yeah,
or boxes right right in a fireplace after people open
them up.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Not a good idea, it's not, it really is.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And here's the story on that. So I think a
couple months ago we might have talked about making sure
the chimney is clean, making sure the creoso's gone out
of the chimney. It's flammable, make sure you haven't had
a chimney fire. Let's say you didn't heed the advice
and you don't know when you had that chimney cleaner inspected.
If there's kreosode in there, it catches fire with real
(03:33):
hot quick fires, which is exactly what paper produces.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And so that would be more reason than to follow
that up based on those of us that have seen
a Christmas tree and the way it ignites and burns
almost immediately.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Sure don't burn tree trimmings in the fire place.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Absolutely, and it happens all the time. I mean, it
happens all the time. And you know, once we get
to November, I'm sure you know, you watch the news
and there's there's a house fire almost every other no
doubt about it, and they never say what caused it.
But we don't have those problems in the summer, and
a lot of times it's just because we've got everything inside.
(04:14):
People are burning fires, they're cooking more, et cetera. So
I know these are common sensical, but boy, just just
think about it. What happens it's pretty You throw the
paper in there and maybe you get a little different
color of flames. But that's burning so hot, and if
that chimney's dirty, you run the risk of a chimney fire.
And if you've already had a chimney fire and that
(04:34):
liner's cracked, you run the risk of starting the house fire.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Okay, sometimes my wife does this from time to time,
where she'll close the flume right, and then all of
a sudden, I'll fire up the you know, the fireplace,
and then you know, smoke is everywhere now. Cracking the
window certainly helps, right m M. Anything else that the
well recommend, it's the.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Real deal too, Not so much as that. I mean,
it certainly would do that if the damper was closed.
But a lot of times it's negative air pressure inside
our homes. So remember, you build a fire, it creates heat,
It warms the chimney, and it creates a drawl bringing
the smoke out. But if you got the kitchen fan
and somebody's doing a cooking and it's a ventilating fan,
(05:18):
that's pulling air, and that's pulling air down the chimney,
or the bathroom fan, it's pulling air down the chimney,
so you get a negative air pressure inside the house,
you start a fire, and the smoke can't really warm
up the chimney, so it starts coming into the house.
That's not a good look. No, just crack the window.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So now, now here's the one that these things terrify me.
They always have. I don't know why. I never had
a bad experience from them, but talking about space heaters,
these things just scare me to death. Now, there are
certain places, in certain ways that you would suggest do
not do these things. If you're using a space heater,
(05:56):
what would they do well?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
For sure? And if people read the directions and all
people do Number one, a lot of them will say
don't use in bathrooms for just basic reason. A lot
of water. Make sure they're ul listed, make sure it
has a ground false circuit interrupter on the plug of
that space heater. And the number one thing is people
get a space heater and then they run a lamp
(06:19):
cord extension cord that's fifteen feet long.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
That's a no no.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It tells you do not use extension cords with this.
Those things are pulling about fifteen hundred watts. That's a
lot of juice. So no extension cords on a space heater,
and don't run them under the carpet or under a
throw rug in a doorway or in the family room.
People walk over that carpet. It's abrasive on the back
(06:43):
with jute. So no, no to the extension cords, and
read the directions. And if you're going to buy one,
see what that thing is actually designed to be, how
it's designed to be used, and keep flammables away from
these things, you know, like blankets and stuff about it.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, and with all that in mind, a lot of
us have a fire extinguisher. Probably a lot more of
us do not.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Boy, I agree with that. And then the next big
question is doeserve by the family know how to use it? Yeah,
And I'll bet you a lot of people driving right
now said no. No.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
There's you know, the old the old fire extingus.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You know, pull the pin, you take, you aim, you
sweep at the base of the fire. But there's a
lot of fire extinguishers out there now that come in
almost it's almost like an aerosol, like an aerosol campaign,
only it's about twice as big as an aerosol, has
as much power as a regular good sized fire extinguisher
so they can be conveniently located. They're inexpensive and there's
(07:45):
no mystery. I mean you it's like aerosol. You press
the button down on the top and it's blowing out
the powder and putting out the fire. It's an ABC,
so it takes care of you know, all types of fires.
But man, today they just go you know, fireplace, no fireplace,
a lot of cooking. If you do anything at all
(08:05):
and you don't have one, go buy one today and
put it in the kitchen cabinet underneath the stove, okay,
and you can probably get to the garage with it.
You could probably get to the fireplace with it. You
can get to the cooking. But there's nothing worse than
having a kitchen fire or something like that and you
have nothing.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
All right, I got less than a minute. Last thing
that I found interesting you put on here about trimming
candle wicks.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, yeah, that's another thing. Number one we all know,
blowout the candles before we go to bed. Before you
light it again, make sure it's just got about a
quarter inch wick at the top. Tom. If it's got
a real long one, you'll get a real long flame.
It'll produce a lot of smoke. You can kind of,
you know, you can kind of start messing up your
walls if you're burning them a long time with the
(08:46):
long wick, So trim those wicks down. The base of
a pillar candle should almost be two times the size.
Add the pillar candle, make sure it's good and steady,
and stay safe.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Amen. Merry Christmas to you, my friend. You are the
very very best. Tom.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You have a merry Christmas too. Well talk in a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I guess I'll look forward to it, all right. God
speed ahead.
Harry, Let's get right to it, because I was thinking
about when you sent me this email last night. I'm
looking around my house and you know, we have a
fireplace right in the middle of the living room, you know,
the whole nine yards. We're going to talk about home
safety tips for the holidays. Let's start with we have
a live tree. Let's start how important is it to
(00:23):
continue to make sure that thing has water on?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh, it's so important. You ever see any of those
videos when they actually light to Christmas?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yes, I have a friend of mine that does it
outside every year, and I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It is unbelievable how quickly it gets consumed. So we
don't want it to dry out. And a lot of
this is just common sense, but it needs to be
repeated every year. Don't put the Christmas tree over a
register vent that's blowing warm air on it. Not that
it's going to catch fire, but you're going to dry
it out. Make sure. And when you first cut that
tree and cut the little you know, stump down at
(00:58):
the bottom, open up the and let us start drinking water.
It's amazing. You're gonna You're gonna fill up that stand
every day, every day, okay, and it'll take about two
or three weeks before it starts sealing off. So keep
it really watered, I mean from a standpoint of just
keeping it from drying out.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So important. Okay, that's number one. And then I started
paying attention. I talked about the fireplace right and hanging
garland that could be hanging down off the mantle, say
above it, and you don't want that obviously, right.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Right right, and and kind of the same way. I
guess a lot of it depends, I'm on what type
of garden you know, you got that foil garden and
stuff like that. How much heat comes out of the
fire box and just kind of warms that mantle. But
you don't want to be hanging evergreens there. And I
see it all the time this time of year, and
I'll even say something to the people like them, So.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You guys use that fireplace during the holidays and it's
always yeah, you know, we always make a good fire
and Christmas, and go like what you know, I just
I'm not trying to be you know.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Nosy, but I wouldn't put that garland there. And then
they look and they go, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Because I do have a question for you on that
one though, is the fake garland stuff is flammable? As
you know, a lot of people will go out and
then they'll you know, when they get their tree, they'll
get the garland that you know is live for all
intents and purposes. Is there a difference as far as
being more flammable, Well.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
There is to a degree. So some of them will
say flammable. In fact most of them will, okay, but
it's nothing like a real live garland. Again, going back
to the story about the Christmas tree, how fastly it
can busts. This would lot of your garden garland's plastic.
It may melt or kind of warp. So I was
(02:48):
really kind of focusing on the live. But it's really
not a good place to put garland anyway because there's
a lot of heat coming out of that firebox.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yes there is, okay, now talking about a lot of folks,
I've seen it done. They burn the gift wrapping, yeah,
or boxes right right in a fireplace after people open
them up.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Not a good idea, it's not, it really is.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And here's the story on that. So I think a
couple months ago we might have talked about making sure
the chimney is clean, making sure the creoso's gone out
of the chimney. It's flammable, make sure you haven't had
a chimney fire. Let's say you didn't heed the advice
and you don't know when you had that chimney cleaner inspected.
If there's kreosode in there, it catches fire with real
(03:33):
hot quick fires, which is exactly what paper produces.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And so that would be more reason than to follow
that up based on those of us that have seen
a Christmas tree and the way it ignites and burns
almost immediately.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Sure don't burn tree trimmings in the fire place.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Absolutely, and it happens all the time. I mean, it
happens all the time. And you know, once we get
to November, I'm sure you know, you watch the news
and there's there's a house fire almost every other no
doubt about it, and they never say what caused it.
But we don't have those problems in the summer, and
a lot of times it's just because we've got everything inside.
(04:14):
People are burning fires, they're cooking more, et cetera. So
I know these are common sensical, but boy, just just
think about it. What happens it's pretty You throw the
paper in there and maybe you get a little different
color of flames. But that's burning so hot, and if
that chimney's dirty, you run the risk of a chimney fire.
And if you've already had a chimney fire and that
(04:34):
liner's cracked, you run the risk of starting the house fire.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Okay, sometimes my wife does this from time to time,
where she'll close the flume right, and then all of
a sudden, I'll fire up the you know, the fireplace,
and then you know, smoke is everywhere now. Cracking the
window certainly helps, right m M. Anything else that the
well recommend, it's the.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Real deal too, Not so much as that. I mean,
it certainly would do that if the damper was closed.
But a lot of times it's negative air pressure inside
our homes. So remember, you build a fire, it creates heat,
It warms the chimney, and it creates a drawl bringing
the smoke out. But if you got the kitchen fan
and somebody's doing a cooking and it's a ventilating fan,
(05:18):
that's pulling air, and that's pulling air down the chimney,
or the bathroom fan, it's pulling air down the chimney,
so you get a negative air pressure inside the house,
you start a fire, and the smoke can't really warm
up the chimney, so it starts coming into the house.
That's not a good look. No, just crack the window.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So now, now here's the one that these things terrify me.
They always have. I don't know why. I never had
a bad experience from them, but talking about space heaters,
these things just scare me to death. Now, there are
certain places, in certain ways that you would suggest do
not do these things. If you're using a space heater,
(05:56):
what would they do well?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
For sure? And if people read the directions and all
people do Number one, a lot of them will say
don't use in bathrooms for just basic reason. A lot
of water. Make sure they're ul listed, make sure it
has a ground false circuit interrupter on the plug of
that space heater. And the number one thing is people
get a space heater and then they run a lamp
(06:19):
cord extension cord that's fifteen feet long.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
That's a no no.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It tells you do not use extension cords with this.
Those things are pulling about fifteen hundred watts. That's a
lot of juice. So no extension cords on a space heater,
and don't run them under the carpet or under a
throw rug in a doorway or in the family room.
People walk over that carpet. It's abrasive on the back
(06:43):
with jute. So no, no to the extension cords, and
read the directions. And if you're going to buy one,
see what that thing is actually designed to be, how
it's designed to be used, and keep flammables away from
these things, you know, like blankets and stuff about it.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, and with all that in mind, a lot of
us have a fire extinguisher. Probably a lot more of
us do not.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Boy, I agree with that. And then the next big
question is doeserve by the family know how to use it? Yeah,
And I'll bet you a lot of people driving right
now said no. No.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
There's you know, the old the old fire extingus.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You know, pull the pin, you take, you aim, you
sweep at the base of the fire. But there's a
lot of fire extinguishers out there now that come in
almost it's almost like an aerosol, like an aerosol campaign,
only it's about twice as big as an aerosol, has
as much power as a regular good sized fire extinguisher
so they can be conveniently located. They're inexpensive and there's
(07:45):
no mystery. I mean you it's like aerosol. You press
the button down on the top and it's blowing out
the powder and putting out the fire. It's an ABC,
so it takes care of you know, all types of fires.
But man, today they just go you know, fireplace, no fireplace,
a lot of cooking. If you do anything at all
(08:05):
and you don't have one, go buy one today and
put it in the kitchen cabinet underneath the stove, okay,
and you can probably get to the garage with it.
You could probably get to the fireplace with it. You
can get to the cooking. But there's nothing worse than
having a kitchen fire or something like that and you
have nothing.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
All right, I got less than a minute. Last thing
that I found interesting you put on here about trimming
candle wicks.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, yeah, that's another thing. Number one we all know,
blowout the candles before we go to bed. Before you
light it again, make sure it's just got about a
quarter inch wick at the top. Tom. If it's got
a real long one, you'll get a real long flame.
It'll produce a lot of smoke. You can kind of,
you know, you can kind of start messing up your
walls if you're burning them a long time with the
(08:46):
long wick, So trim those wicks down. The base of
a pillar candle should almost be two times the size.
Add the pillar candle, make sure it's good and steady,
and stay safe.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Amen. Merry Christmas to you, my friend. You are the
very very best. Tom.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You have a merry Christmas too. Well talk in a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I guess I'll look forward to it, all right. God
speed ahead.
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