Ho! Ho! Holy cow it’s December already. It blows my mind how fast time flies. You’ve got to be careful when you blink or you might miss something. As we roll headlong and full speed into all the stressors and events that the holiday season brings, the Theodore Dawes Fire
Rescue Department would like to remind you of a few things. The number one thing is the reason for the season, let’s not get too wrapped up in all the commercial hype and forget about the true meaning of Christmas. The other things are simple, be patient, relax, enjoy your families, and water those live Christmas Trees.
Be patient, it’s easy to get aggravated and irritated waiting in long lines to purchase gifts or be stuck in all the holiday traffic. Relax and strike up a conversation with a stranger while in line, turn on some Christmas music while stuck in traffic. Either of those options can go a long way to ease your frustrations. Enjoy your families as much as you can, all of them will not be around forever. Someday you will be able to look back on some of those special memories made with loved ones and share those with the younger members of your family. I threw in a little note at the end of the first paragraph about watering your Christmas tree. Your live tree is just that, it’s still alive and just like roses or other flowers in a vase, it needs water to stay green as long as possible. If your tree is left without water, it will dry out and a dry tree will burn extremely hot and fast. One of my earliest fires as a rookie in the fire service was on a very cold Christmas morning, the tree itself did not start the fire, but because it was dry, it contributed greatly to the intensity of the devastation created by the fire. The family that morning was lucky to escape with their lives. Keep some water in the live tree stand! As we move into and through the holiday season, the weather generally starts to change, and we start to see cooler weather. Last month I mentioned the use of space heaters, and nothing has changed. Please be mindful with your placement of those heaters and what is around them. We see it year in and year out, a fire that was caused by the space heater being too close to a combustible material.
This being the last Tail Board Talk of the year, I would like to say thank you to all those that may follow and read this little post. I truly hope the posts have been informative and interesting to read for you. I do owe everyone an apology for the previous talks that spoke of Springing
Forward and Falling Back, I was unaware that our political establishment had not gotten their act together on that issue. I hope you will continue to read and follow your fire department as we continue to strive towards providing our communities with a quality fire and rescue service.
From all of us at your Theodore Dawes Fire Rescue Department, we wish each of you and your families a safe and joyous holiday season.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and God Bless,
Chief Byrd