Final Holiday Horror Stories Podcast.mp3

Final Holiday Horror Stories Podcast.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Final Holiday Horror Stories Podcast.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Katie:
Welcome to a City of Redding podcast. This episode is all about holiday safety. It's easy to tune out because we've all heard these tips before, but there couldn't be a worse time of year for something to go horribly wrong than in the holidays. So take a few minutes and give this episode a listen. And we're talking about some serious safety issues, like did you know that more home fires start during the holiday season than any other time of year? And most of these are preventable.

Steve:
Today, we'll be speaking with Michael Deedon, solid waste supervisor and Camber, Dietrich, fire prevention specialist for some holiday tips that you don't want to miss. And listen, if you're really busy. We're going to recap all these at the end of the episode, So we'll have a quick reference. In the midst of a busy holiday season, you don't want to be the one to make a silly mistake that ends up turning into a holiday horror story. This is Michael Dean. I am a public works supervisor for the solid waste utility for the City of Redding. I oversee operations at three locations, the transfer station facility at 2255, Abernathy Lane, the closed Benton landfill location off of Ventura, and also the West Central Landfill, which is a county owned landfill. But city runs operations out there, and that is that 14 095 Clear Creek Road. And I go.

Katie:
Thank you, Michael, for joining us today. And we'll be talking about things that happen, particularly during the holidays, but then also just some great stories and tips and things that people should be aware of all year around. So maybe you can start us off and give us a holiday horror story that has to do with something that you deal with on a daily basis that really makes your job a particularly dangerous one.

Michael:
Lithium-ion batteries. So it is a year-round concern in our industry and what we have to deal with. But around the holidays, there's an uptick, more gifts. And so the old, old electronic devices, for the most part, get disposed of improperly, and that's because the battery is still inside them. So lithium-ion batteries, when they are struck, or damaged, they can usually ignite. And it is a very hot source of heat and can start fires with other combustible materials around them in the trash and can cause significant injury to either personnel close by or equipment that is by the fire. So we ask that they are recycled properly. We have facilities at the transfer station that can show you how to remove the battery out of those items if needed and help you get that disposed of properly.

Steve:
And Michael, when you say lithium-ion batteries, those are different than your traditional AA and AA batteries, correct?

Michael:
Correct. Those are alkaline. And then like car batteries for the most part are lead acids. So the lithium-ion is just a different makeup of the battery. They're usually smaller in stature and give more power type of thing. And that's why when they're damaged, they put off more heat.

Katie:
So we're talking like cell phone batteries, computer batteries, any kind of small electronics in your house. And what exactly are you supposed to do with them? You're supposed to remove the battery first before you throw it away. Or do you recommend that people just take it in to the transfer station?

Steve:
So being an electronic device, most electronic devices are recyclable totally, but when we recycle them, we need to remove the battery is it's not categorized in that specific recyclable. So we need to separate them anyhow if you are just going to throw it away, which isn't the right thing to do. Yes, the battery is not allowed in your waste, so that does need to be disposed of properly.

Katie:
And how many fires do you typically see due to these kinds of things being improperly disposed of?

Michael:
So at the landfill, it's at least once a week on the working face, which is where the compactor is running over your trash, compacting it into the hole. It's damaging everything it runs over. So we get quite a few. We can usually handle them efficiently there because we have the equipment there and ready for it. But we do see them on the transfer station floor as well as when our loader or something else may run it over and cause that fire to start as well. We don't want it to happen, but there is definitely an uptick with the use of lithium-ion batteries and everything.

Steve:
And Michael, in addition to the potential for the fire at the landfill, there's some other environmental concerns with lithium-ion batteries. Right. Going into the water system or the ground.

Michael:
Yeah. And it's not just lithium-ion batteries. It's all the batteries, especially lead acid or alkaline. You know, whether or not it starts a fire, that actual chemical, you know, we collect water at the landfill through the trash as well. And we have to deal with that water at the end result. If testing of that water gets too stringent, then we're going to have to treat that water, which adds cost to our operation kind of thing, which then trickles down to the customer. So if we can get these items that cause issues in our industry, especially at the landfill and disposing, we can keep these costs down in the future. And it may seem like, oh, it's just a Double-A battery, You know, no one's going to know. Well, unfortunately, if you do it, how many other thousand people are doing it kind of a thing. So it adds up. It's it's amazing to see how many batteries actually you do see on the transfer station floor or. Or out on the tipping phase at the landfill.

Katie:
So that's a great, fair warning for everybody dealing with holiday gifts, replacing the old and getting new to make sure to watch where those batteries are going. Next up, we've heard that propane tanks can be a problem for you. Maybe you can talk about that one.

Michael:
Yes. Propane tanks, everyday item for most households, anywhere from those small £1 green bottles for your camping cookstoves or lantern or whatnot, all the way up to £10 and even above that. But the £5 propane bottle is probably the most prolific, most barbecues. You know, have them and people use them. When you dispose of them, they are recyclable. If they're empty and the valve is removed from the bottle, it's just metal. Then we can dispose of it in our metal bins. If the valve is on them, we have locations that will take them and recycle accordingly and maybe even reuse them. When you do dispose of them improperly, it can cause a great amount of damage to equipment and or harm to workers or customers nearby on where we're processing them. We actually had an incident on our transfer station floor where we were feeding trash into what we call our shredding machine, and it makes materials smaller. That's what it does. It's a shredder. And it actually pierced the propane tank. It didn't ignite it at that second, propane went through the belt system and then it got sparked and lit it off. And it was a pretty good fireball throughout that whole machine. And the building. We have video actually, of that instance, and it's pretty remarkable at what it did. Luckily enough, it didn't harm anybody. And the machine took the brunt of the explosion and had pretty minimal damage.

Michael:
But it's one of those instances where if that propane tank wasn't there, we wouldn't even have been talking about it kind of thing. So there is the potential for a lot of destruction and harm with just a common item like a propane tank being thrown away.

Steve:
Wow. That is that's intense. And and Michael, if I have a propane tank or like we talked about before, batteries and I'm not sure how best to dispose of them. I know solid waste has the waste wizard on their website and through the mobile app. What's the best way, I guess, to figure out what you're supposed to do with that item?

Michael:
The waste wizard on the solid waste website for the City of Redding is a great mechanism to find out with any item what you're supposed to do with it. If you're in question about it, if you're not getting the answer on the waste wizard, definitely give us a call and we will find the answer through all the avenues that we have. We have a lot of different departments within solid waste, but if we can't find the answer, we will reach out to other entities out there. Shasta County Environmental Health. That's another good resource to reach out to for information on the proper disposal of items. Just don't assume to throw away anything if you're not sure it's questionable.Take a look at that waste wizard first and then go from there.

Steve:
And I'm always curious, too, with the drivers that pick up the household cans from the street, say someone did put a propane tank in their garbage can, obviously wouldn't necessarily be bagged. Are the drivers actively monitoring via camera what's going into the truck and stopping it if they see it? Or really it's not until it gets to that transfer station floor until it's found.

Michael:
Good, Good question. All of our drivers do have what we call hopper cameras, so they're seeing what's being dumped. But it's very easy to conceal a propane tank. You put it in a garbage bag. We're not going to see it. We just think garbage is inside that garbage bag. We don't have a mechanism to see through things. We've actually had incidents of propane tanks going into our garbage trucks and a couple of our garbage trucks now have what's called an auger system that packs it. And so a propane tank does not do well. And we've had a couple not explode but leak. And then that propane actually entered the engine intake and the engine revs very high and uncontrollably type of thing. But to this point, I don't believe we've had an explosion, but we've had some some close calls per say with those types of trucks.

Katie:
Wow. Obviously, people take trash so for granted. They just think like it's empty, it's done. I don't need anymore. I'm going to throw it away. But these actually are highly dangerous for solid waste crew. We also talked about some household chemicals as well. I think that's another area where people just don't think about it, Right? They're done with it or it's old or it's been sitting in a shed for a while and they're cleaning out. Maybe you can talk through some of those household chemicals, some common ones that you see and why they're so dangerous for your crew.

Michael:
Sure. Drano, you know, anything that you clean your house with probably going to be considered a hazardous waste item. It's also liquids, any liquids. Remember, we're solid waste. We don't take liquids. So anything liquid we're not going to take in the trash can, recycle can or green waste can. But most of those items we do accept at the hazardous waste facility on Abernathy here at the transfer station, we don't take ammunition, though That's a totally different it's not hazardous waste. That's a totally different category. Any explosives, that kind of stuff or radioactive waste, we don't take that here. So please don't bring any of that stuff to us. A lot of these items, I believe, though, will be on the waste wizard. So if you if you don't know and you have the label, type that into the waste wizard on our website and it'll give you an answer. If it doesn't, then call us again, those types of items, we're going to refer you to our household hazardous waste division and they will have an answer for you.

Steve:
And Michael, what about I know during the holiday season, many folks fry turkeys and there's large amounts of grease being utilized. What's the best method for someone to dispose of a large amount of grease?

Michael:
So grease usually is in a liquid form. So don't don't put that in your trash can. Don't freeze it. And then now it's solid and go in the trashcan as it'll warm up and go all over the place. During the holidays, we take cooking oil for free at the hazardous waste drop-off site. At the transfer station. We get a tank from a local vendor here and we take it and dispose of it for you for free during the holiday season.

Katie:
So this might be a silly question, but what happens if there's an abundance of grease in the garbage? Does that ruin the landfill mix? Does that ruin the machinery? Like what happens if I were just to dump a bunch of canola oil into my trash can and be like, Well.They'll handle it.

Michael:
So it goes all over the place. It goes all over everything. So it's going to take that driver or equipment operator, depending on who's all in touch with it. They've got to clean their equipment up. But if there's any potential for recyclables that we could pull out of that trash, so like there's cardboard or something that someone put in the gray can instead of us being able to pull it out once it hits the transfer station for it's contaminated its trash. So it actually contaminates potential recyclables and diversion items that we could could recycle. They are now trash. They're just contaminated.

Steve:
And I know it's maybe not quite a holiday horror topic, but Christmas tree disposal. I know solid waste does a program sometime after the holidays. Can you talk a little bit about how folks should best dispose of their used Christmas trees?

Michael:
Yes. So residential customers, we pick up the week of New Year's, that week's collection. We'll go around and pick up any trees that we deemed are clean and clean by is no flocking, no stencil, no ornaments still on them, no tree stands, that kind of stuff. Just the the tree itself. We can compost it and we'll run that through our composting facility. Put it in your green can or cut it up and no longer than three foot lengths and put it next to your green can. And we will pick those up free of charge that week for residential customers.

Steve:
If you could tell community members maybe one thing to keep in mind on the importance of recycling and using your trash bins the proper way, what would you say?

Michael:
Recycling will help us keep our garbage fees low. And what I mean is if you do it the right way and you help us out in sorting it, keeping it clean, keeping it where it's supposed to be, that helps us not having to put manpower, buy equipment to do that for you. If our patrons and customers do that for us, it's going to save money down the road.

Katie:
And I just think it's so important to highlight it's trash to me when I throw it away and put it in a bin and then it just goes away from my life. But there's a whole team of humans at solid waste that then have to deal with the trash that comes through. So it does make it more important for me to take that extra time or that extra minute to make sure I'm disposing of it properly so it doesn't negatively impact the team of people who then have to deal with it on the other end.

Steve:
Someone's going to have to deal with it eventually. So if everyone can do the little part at the house, at their business type of thing and do it right, or how we ask of them, because that's the way we're set up to process it or collect it. It really helps all the way down the line of keeping costs low and keeping a good service for everybody. It may be a little bit extra work, but we're not asking for a lot of work. Doing a little bit can go a long way if everybody does a little bit.

Steve:
Mike, I'm curious to I mean, when you hear the term landfill, I think folks kind of take it for granted that, sure, you know, every city has a landfill that's just part of city infrastructure. Can you talk a little bit about the landfills here in the Redding and Shasta County area and maybe why we're actually more fortunate in that regard?

Michael:
Yeah. So Shasta County has two landfills. One is down in Anderson, which is run by waste Management, and the other one is out Clear Creek Road in Igo, Which the county owns the property and runs the landfill engineering and all that kind of stuff, regulatory aspects of it.But they've partnered with the city of Redding. When the city closed the Benton landfill inside the city limits and to run the operations. So the city actually runs all of the daily operations out at the West Central landfill. It's been a great relationship between the county and city board to continuing that with them. But the other thing is that we're fortunate to have two facilities in landfills to keep costs low. We don't have to transport our trash out of county, out of state, which a lot of places in California have to do. I don't know if anybody's been to the coast. And had to pay garbage fees over there, but they're considerably higher than what we pay over here. So I don't want people to take it for granted that we have these facilities, but use them properly as they fill up. If we can recycle as much as we can and keep the stuff that we can get out of there, not to go into landfills, they'll be here longer for us to use.

Katie:
Those were some great tips from our solid waste department. And now we'll hear some important safety information from our fire department.

Camber:
My name is Camber Dietrich, and I'm the fire prevention specialist for the City of Redding. I do everything from vegetation management to public education to public information.

Steve:
Perfect. Well, thank you for joining us today. Camber. We're excited to have you on the podcast. And we were talking today, all things holiday safety tips and holiday horror stories. So we're excited to have this conversation with you. Obviously, during the holidays, there's there's all sorts of, I guess, tips and tricks that we recommend to the community by way of the fire department and the police department and others. And maybe we could just go through a couple of those today as it relates to fire. Maybe we'll start with during the holidays. Many folks like to deep fry turkeys and we know that that can be quite tasty, but also potentially be a cause of some high heat and potential fire risk. Maybe you could talk to us a little bit about deep frying turkeys and any potential firsthand experiences you've had with with issues around that.

Camber:
Yeah, So deep frying turkeys, it's become really popular that it lost some popularity, that it gained it again, it, weirdly enough, is a way to cook your turkey. And it became a way to cook your turkey to keep it more moist because, you know, everybody's grandma had the start the turkey at midnight and put it in the oven at 350 for 12 and a half hours till dinnertime. And it makes for fairly dry turkey. So deep frying a turkey literally sears it instantly Sears in all that good flavor and all the good juices and all that good stuff. The problem is people don't always measure before they do it or they don't fully thaw their turkey or they don't pay attention to the heat of the actual oil. So a lot of things can go wrong and it's happened more than once is a horrible tragedy. When it does, you go from a beautiful day of of wonderful family joy and Thanksgiving, and everybody's got the family running around and all the things you can actually send a fireball. And I've seen it happen through trainings. You can send a fireball up to 60 feet into the air with a deep fried turkey if you do it wrong. And it's basically the same as a grease fire on your stove, only about ten times bigger. That's what happens with it, that that turkey hits that grease, it comes flying out over the edges. That fire up underneath there ignites that and their water doesn't put it out. Don't go get your hose. It will make it worse, just like any other grease fire. Don't run and grab your garden hose and start spraying. It will only get bigger and worse.

Katie:
So in that instance, I know a lot of people still are planning on frying turkeys. So what specifically do you see that causes these fires? Like what if people are going to avoid a turkey fryer fire, What should they be looking out for?

Camber:
So most deep fryers now, most of the new ones you're going to get actually have measurements on the side of the pot for you. Pay attention to them, it will tell you. And they come with thermometers, most of them, and it'll tell you how hot your oil should be. Pay attention to that. Don't do it in your garage. I know that sometimes we can have inclement weather. I don't want to go outside because it's raining, it's cold, it's slightly windy. Don't do it in your garage. Just don't do it. Don't do it on your deck. Don't do it in your garage. Don't do it up under your house in any way, shape and or form. Because when that fireball does go up, if it is next to your house, it's splattering that oil on your house. And now your house is definitely on fire. Easiest ways. Pay attention to the measurements, pay attention to the temperature. Make sure that turkey is completely thawed, that frozen turkey is way worse than a thawed turkey because it creates more steam. All that ice turns to water and steam, and that just makes the explosion even bigger. And make sure you are nowhere near your home or up under trees if you can be. Those are your best your best options for it.

Steve:
And Camber, so hypothetically, say someone does inadvertently start a fire from their frying experience. I know there are certain fire extinguishers that are rated for grease fires, but I guess what is the best course of action either,if you don't have a fire extinguisher handy or one that is meant for grease fires, what should someone do? Especially if it's maybe in an outside fire that you can't just put a lid on the pot type of thing?

Camber:
Yeah, in most cases with a turkey deep fryer, it's not going to be just drop the lid on the pot because the oil comes out of the pot onto the ground and don't go get your hose. Water and oil we know don't mix. If you do have that extinguisher, have it nearby. Keep it right there. If for any reason you don't have that extinguisher, something absolutely tragic does happen. And it does every year more often than we would like to admit or care to think about immediately. Call 911. We are working that day. We work 24 seven 365 days a year because it does happen unintentionally. So immediately call 911 and if your house is on fire, if it does happen, you know you're on your deck or you're in your garage. You're under your under your eaves, and it does catch your house. Get everybody out of the house. Dial 911. That's the best thing you can do.

Katie:
Okay. Starting off with a bang. I love it. So let's move from Turkey grease fires to maybe something that happens more often in the kitchen. So typically, even if you're not frying a turkey or doing a ton of cooking over the holidays in your kitchen, and that can be a place where it gets a little chaotic during the holidays. There's maybe family in town, there's more going on. You're cooking more than you usually do. What do you see happen during the holidays in the kitchen that, you know, certainly happens other times a year, but you see an increase in in during the holidays.

Camber:
Strangely enough, the biggest thing is scalding burns. I know. I do it. Everybody I know does it. So you try and fit as many things as you can on the stove at a time because you're trying to cook for however many people and do as many dishes as you can and all at once, you know, to make sure that all of dinner is warm all at once and ready to go. Weirdly enough, one of the safest things you can do is make sure that all of the handles on your pots and pans are facing over the counters. Right. So if you're looking at your stove and you've grabbed that pot, make sure that handle isn't coming out over the front of the stove where when the excited kids come running through and they're not paying attention and their hand goes up because they're screaming and yelling and they whack that pot handle and now that's coming flying off the stove and it's landing on the kid, It's landing on the dog, it's landing on you. Now we've got hot gravy all over the kid. We've got very potentially third-degree burns all over the kid from that boiling gravy that you've been cooking.So those pot handles, those are the biggest things for safety you can do. The other thing is try and keep a three-foot radius. I know many kitchens are small and houses, you know, small. Try and keep a three foot radius and make it a game for your kids, even for your family members if you want. But for your kids, you know, this is the invisible force field. You can't come in here, make it a game. You have to stay outside it, Put a line on the ground if you have to for them to visually see to keep everybody just kind of out of that area. You're turning, you're moving things. Everything's hot, it's boiling over. There's noise, there's chaos. It's crazy. It's all joyful and wonderful. Hopefully, you know, holidays. But make that invisible three foot field for those kids and honestly, anybody else, because do you really need your, you know, your in-laws tips on how good your gravy tastes? I mean, do you?

Steve:
And Camber, if someone does get a burn, whether it be an adult or a child in the kitchen, what's the best course of action? I'm guessing depending on the severity of the burn.

Camber:
If it does happen, if that pot comes flying off, you want to start running cool water depending on severity and what's happened down 911, that is what we are here for. But you're going to start wanting to run that under cool water, not freezing cold, not ice, cool water. If you put anything on it, make sure it's damp. Don't put dry on top of that burn. That's going to stick, too. And when they peel it off, it's going to then rip off any skin that may have potentially stayed. So you're going to want cool and damp and immediately dial 911.

Katie:
How often would you say this happens during the holidays? Like how many? How many roughly how many calls does Reading Fire receive from scalds or burns in the kitchen each year?

Camber:
You know, honestly, off the top of my head, I'm not sure I know we get them. And the one people don't think about is steam. You go to pop that lid off of your mashed potatoes or whatever you've been boiling to give it the cook's smell test. I know I do it and pop the lid off and give it that quick sniff to be like, okay, I'm right right in the area. I need to add this or change that. That steam comes flying off of there. It will burn your face. It will give you third degree burns. Steam is the big one. It's the same thing you want cool and damp. I wish I knew how many we go to of that. Exactly. I do know we get quite a few though.

Katie:
Great.

Steve:
Interesting. Thanks.

Katie:
I mean, not great.But.Good to know.

Steve:
Yeah. The next topic we wanted to cover is with regard to Christmas trees. Obviously, folks have Christmas trees in the house many times. They're watered throughout the course of the holiday season. Other times they're not potentially dry out. What are some holiday safety tips around Christmas trees and any firsthand experiences through redding fire that you've seen with regard to Christmas trees themselves?

Camber:
Yeah, most people are going to get them either the day after Thanksgiving, the weekend after Thanksgiving, or a couple of weeks thereafter. The longer you have that tree, though, the more time it has to dry out in your house and the drier that tree is, the more dangerous it is. You want to make sure you freshly cut that tree at least two inches when you first put it in your house, freshly cut two inches off the bottom of it. So however tall you want it to be, you don't want it to hit the roof. You want to put your star on the top and beautiful and luscious and green, and you want to keep it that way. Make sure you have enough room to take two inches immediately off the bottom of that thing. Give it a nice fresh bottom, make sure that it goes straight into water and it stays in water. Everybody has the excuse, well All my presents are in the way. I've heard that so many times. I can't get to the tree because the presents are in the way, right? You don't want to lay on the ground and knock ornaments off the. By reaching in there and either keep yourself a path on the back side, on on the off side of the tree that you can continually get to it because that tree is going to need water probably every other day. It's more often than you would think.Those things continue to suck up water the same as they were in the ground, and that is constantly the drier that tree gets, the more dangerous it gets for you. And I know a lot of people well, not a lot of people. The world in general, we switch over LED lights. They put off a lot less heat. If you still by chance have those old glass bulbs, you really have to pay attention. They put off heat. They always did. They always will. So if you can afford it, if you're able to switch over to the LEDs, they put off a lot less heat. There are a lot safer for me. I come from a German background and in Germany it's very common to put candles on trees. Still, I would not advise it. And if you are going to do it, only do it the day of the celebration. Pay very, very close attention to it and blow everything out. As soon as you're done singing, the carols are supposed to sing. Don't risk it and keep all other candles away from your tree. You don't want you want anything flammable next to your Christmas tree, whether it's the first day you put it up or January 2nd when you finally decided to take it down or January 8th, when you finally decided to take it down, keep anything flammable and then heat related completely away from it.

Katie:
And just like the electrical lights themselves have anything to do with it, because I feel like I've heard that my whole life. Like, you know, Christmas lights can be dangerous on a Christmas tree. And I feel like I've never heard of a Christmas tree going up from lights. I feel like it's I've always heard of a Christmas tree going up because of a candle or a candle nearby or like a heater or something. Has reading Fire actually seen a Christmas tree grow up here because of old Christmas lights?

Speaker3:
You know, I don't think recently, I'm sure back in the day they did. And I do know that they can make them go up. They can actually make other trees. So it's really common. I'm sure you guys know, you know, the older big like c-9 lights that we put around the outside of their houses when you were kids?

Katie:
Yes.

Camber:
Okay. So those are still used really commonly on like citrus trees in the winter because they put off heat. So you take a strand of those old glass nine bulbs and you wrap them around your orange tree and you turn it on at night. Because we do get down into the thirties here and it will frost and you know, it protects. So the same thing for the smaller bulbs I want to say they were C sevens or C ten, something like that. But the small Christmas tree glass bulbs put off that same heat and the drier your tree got, the more that heat affects those needles. And often, especially now that those are significantly older, it's it's a lot of the wiring. So the wiring gets exposed on those lights. You know, you roll them all up and crumple them and you get pinch points in that wiring when you roll it up and crumple it, shove it into a box and come get it once a year. Well, we only think, oh, we only used it for 20 days in December last year. They're still perfectly good. Well there's another 318 days that it was sitting in that box with that pinched point. That plastic got loose, it got brittle and it tore. Well, now you have bare wire on your Christmas tree. And is that Christmas tree dries out, that bare wire sparks off. It does happen. And people don't think about it. It's not you know, it's not something you're thinking about in the holidays. You're thinking, oh, I'm decorating and it's beautiful and Christmas and I love it because I do. I love Christmas, But you have to check those lights, even the LED ones check over the whole light strand with your hand. Feel it, because you're going to feel those nicks and those bumps and those tears and the electrical wiring being exposed is is more common than heat these days because of the LED lights.

Steve:
And came around that topic with regard to kind of the the electrical piece of of the holiday setup process. I mean, you mentioned exposed wiring. Also, we've heard things in the past with regard to daisy chaining lights together, whether they're outdoor or indoor lights, where you're connecting multiple strands together or fires coming from the outlets themselves. Any holiday tip specific to that piece of the process?

Camber:
Yeah. So you can look at a box of lights and it will tell you exactly how many strands of lights you can put together on it. So it's going to be two, I think the most I've ever seen. And it's majority only for outdoor lights. Right? We all want to go the full distance around our house and we want it to look like one seamless, you know, beautiful strand of lights. And so I hook up one over here. Well, it's only 15 feet and I've got 60 feet on my front of my house. Well, so I'm going to put them together. No, you're not. Because Box only says you can put two together at a time. Once you hit that pass, that point, it starts to draw a different amount of current. It starts to change the way the lights function. It is a whole hazard all into its own. And now it's hanging on the side of your house, by your shingles, by any leaves that are falling down by any pine needles, depending on what trees you have. So pay attention. The boxes generally tell you how many strands of lights you can put together. And then there are also options, at least on the ones the ones I have purchased lately. There are options for ways to add additional strands or, you know, hey, you can only put two of these together, but you can also buy in this much longer length. So now you're buying 50 feet strands instead of 15.

Katie:
Camber Do you have any specific stories of this happening in Redding, where a fire was started from holiday lights strung outside the house?

Camber:
It ended up happening in like, may I want to say, but it was the lights were left on the porch all year, so they withstood the weather, all that good stuff, and they were left out there and they were old C-9's and they heat it up to the point that they ignited the paint on the railing, on the porch. It was just like this perfect combination of heat and weird old paint and dry wood. And up went the front porch and up went the house.

Katie:
Wow.

Steve:
Interesting.

Katie:
I think there was a fire that was started last year in Redding because of improperly plugged in, Like they didn't use the right outlet outside and they plugged in too many lights to it and it caused a fire. And I don't know how much damage was caused from that, but it was they used the wrong appliance to plug them all in. And then they had plugged in too many strands of lights together.

Camber:
So many people get away with this every Christmas that it's scary, right? I feel like all of us are guilty of it at some point, whether it's with Christmas lights or we're going to plug in 12 phone chargers into one thing. Paying attention to what you are plugging into is quite possibly like one of the biggest winter things, like your room heaters. Don't plug them into an extension cord, don't plug them into a strip, plug them in directly to the outlet. That is where they are supposed to be plugged in. It's a draw thing. I don't know if you guys have ever done it, but when you go to unplug something from a strip or an extension cord, it's warm. When you touch it, it's actually warm to the touch means it wasn't supposed to be there the whole time. And you got really lucky that it did not catch fire. There are specific outdoor strips. They are made in specific ways. Those are what should be used and you should only plug in as many cords into it as it has receptacles. I know I am definitely 100% guilty of. Oh well, this outside stake has four receptacles. Well, I'm going to add a three pigtail off of it so I can have even more. Don't do it. It's a bad decision and we've all definitely gotten away with it one too many times.

Steve:
And Camber, on that note, are there best practices as it relates to exterior lights themselves? Like, for example, should should folks only plan to have them on during the hours with which they're awake and then unplug things once they're going to bed? I know some folks leave their lights on all night long. Also, the use of timers to have your lights auto go on and go off each night. Is that okay to do or should folks be manually plugging in and unplugging from the wall?

Camber:
So I am a huge proponent of timers. I love them. I use them with my stuff and it makes things so much easier. But the safest and best practice is if you are asleep or you are not home, your lights shouldn't be on. And I know well, but you know, we only get to have them so many days a year and they're supposed to be on at night so people can see them and are they really going to catch fire? Like I'm just running over to so-and-so's house for dinner and then I'm going to be back, So it's not a big deal. It really can. In that five-minute drive from your house to the grocery store, your house could have gone up in flames because of a funky wire that you hooked on a nail on your siding, it sparked off and now it lit up your house. You don't know it because you're not there.

Katie:
Great advice. So I wanted to move next to something that's very common. Candles in the home. I feel like everybody lights candles during the holidays. Can you give us a couple stories of some candle-sparked fires that you've experienced in your time working for fire departments?

Camber:
Christmas smells. I love it. Holiday smells. I love to burn candles for smells in in the wintertime. And you have to pay attention to where they are. Everybody likes to put them on the mantel over the fireplace or in the windowsill or maybe on the coffee table. But we didn't actually take anything else off the coffee table. More often than not on coffee tables. It's a big one for me. So I do have a story and I think I told you guys sleeping at a friend's house and the Christmas tree fell on top of me in my sleep and I didn't realize it. And some of the ribbons in the tree basically landed on some lit candles on the coffee table. Luckily, I got I got very lucky and nothing happened and nothing took off and there was barely some singing. So that's wonderful for me. I'm here to tell the tale. But coffee tables, they get bumped. Kids are there at such a low level and things get dropped on them. For as much as it's nice to have that wonderful warming and heartwarming and smelling thing on your coffee table, don't put them there. Put them up higher. Put them up where kids aren't going to be able to put their hands at them. Dogs aren't going to be able to hit them with their tails and keep them away from everything. Everything. Decorations, trees, your curtains, everything you can possibly think of. Just keep them away from it. Blow out the candle if you are leaving the house or going to bed, if you're not even going to be in that room anymore. Right. You've finished whatever you're doing, blow it out. Don't don't leave it in there and I'll get back to it later. Blow it out. It is the safest thing you can do. Enjoy them, but blow them out and keep everything away from them. It happens so fast people don't even realize it.

Steve:
It's great advice. Thank you. Camber. And you touched on fireplaces. I'm curious, what are some best practices with regard to fireplaces? Some folks still have wood-burning stoves, which are great for that heat that you mentioned. How often should they be cleaning, cleaning their chimneys and their flues and whatnot? And then also for those folks with electric fireplaces or I guess, gas-powered fireplaces, any safety tips or things they should be aware of or maintenance issues kind of on an annual basis that they should be doing?

Camber:
Yeah. So you should always have your chimney looked at by a professional and cleaned out, if necessary, by a professional every year before you fire it up. It might not need to be cleaned that year, but have that professional look at it. It could have cracked since last time. There's a million things that could have gone wrong with your chimney. So have it looked at and or cleaned once a year by a professional. I grew up with houses, with the wall heaters, the gas wall heaters. You want to check your pilot lights on them, make sure they're going out. Everybody fires it up in that common smell of burning dust and make sure that that pilot is clear and it's burning and there isn't a whole bunch of dust under there. You want to clean that out before you even light it up and make sure it's going good. It's not weak. It's not going in and out. You don't have just gas blowing straight into your house, the wood stoves, which so I have a combination. I have an insert into an old open fireplace, which is its own thing, but it's very similar to woodstoves. They put off heat. Too much heat can crack them. Make sure you're paying attention to what you're putting in there. Make sure you have at least at the very minimum, three feet between any heating element. So fireplace, kerosene heater, gas heater, electric plug in, radiator heaters. Make sure you have at least at the very minimum, three feet between that and anything flammable, those wood-burning stoves. And you like the door open. Make sure you have a great in front of it. Keep a great and a gate in front. It keeps all those little sparking embers from landing on your carpet, your wood floors, your rug, your dog beds, whatever you have anywhere near your couches, whatever you have near it, those embers can fly out of there a good distance. So keep those grates and screens in front of them.

Katie:
Lastly, you mentioned something right before we kind of launched this podcast is something that I had never heard of and that Steve had never heard of that could cause fires no matter what time of year. Maybe you can dive into that.

Camber:
Yeah. So it's, it's those decorative glass knobs is how I would put it. They can also be in the winter and Christmas specifically those beautiful glass icicles that you put up, hang them in your window, you're going to hang them on your tree. And then for me, it's, it's curtain rod ends. And it actually happened in the city twice this year. We had structure fires, home fires because somebody had decorative curtain knob ends that were perfect glass spheres. And the sun, it turns into a magnet, you know, the old magnifying melting your Tonka trucks thing. That's what it is. It turns that sphere into a perfect magnifying glass. Once the sun, hits it just right, and then it puts a beam of light into your house and catches your couch on fire. Or if your curtains are closed, it catches your curtains on fire. You have that icicle hanging on on your Christmas tree and the sun hits it just right. Or you have that icicle in your window and your curtains are closed. Now your curtains or your tree have just caught on fire because of science and you didn't even you know, it's not something anybody thinks about. I'm going to put this beautiful glass ornament up here and it's clear and it's round and it's a solid glass thing, and now it's turned into a magnifying glass and shot a beam of light and caught your curtains or your couch on fire.

Katie:
That is just wild.

Steve:
I never would have thought that. It's unreal.

Camber:
It can happen anywhere. A water bottle. So a full water bottle in your car, sitting in your cup holder. If the sun hits it just right. Well, now it's got your upholstery on fire. It's the same principle.

Steve:
And I think it's important to note, too, it's not just in those 110 degree summer days. I mean, really with the with the strength of the sun that we have year round, it could happen any time, including here during the holidays.

Camber:
Yeah.

Steve:
Is there anything that we haven't covered yet that you wanted to be sure we touched on?

Camber:
Oh. Oh there is one. And it's it's kind of a strange one. We do do it in my family. We have done it since I was young, like before I was ever in EMS. So if you are hosting the holiday, I'm going to obviously assume that you all have an escape plan for your house because you're supposed to have an escape plan with multiple ways out. So you both obviously do right? Yes.

Steve:
Yes, definitely.

Katie:
You know what I will, I will though Camber. I'm going to get on it. This is a good reminder. I think I definitely need to do that.

Camber:
That that was this year's prevention week was, you know, Know your escape - fire won't wait. Know your escape. So definitely have your escape ways. But and this is weird and some people are going to think it's weird. And definitely growing up, people that came over to my house thought it was weird. We didn't do it just for holidays, but we did it for, you know, birthday sleepovers. But holidays. We showed people our escape plans in my family. So friends and family would come over and it was literally, you know, before anything major happened. Here is the escape plan. If you are trapped in here's here's the map, here's the pictures go. And we told everybody where the meeting place was outside. And then that went away and the holiday festivities began.

Steve:
But you're right, that's something that folks don't necessarily think about. But in the moment, I mean, if it's something that you have and have reviewed with your family and your friends, that can be that could be the difference between making it out of a house that's on fire and not. So it's super important to think of that.

Camber:
Right. If you are doing it as intended, you're doing it all the time with your family to practice. Why wouldn't you tell the people who don't know anything about your house? Right. They don't know where that one random door might lead to. Maybe it's a pocket door to the bathroom. Maybe it goes into a closet, you know? And so why wouldn't you at least inform people who have no knowledge of your house? Hey, you know what? In case something crazy happens, you know, not trying to bring down the mood, but in case something crazy happens. Here's the exits and our meeting places over there. So if we get out there and you're not there, we're going to assume you're still here, right? Like, why wouldn't you do that for your loved ones who know nothing about your home?

Katie:
Yeah, it's such a good point.

Steve:
And I mean, also, what do you recommend as far as fire extinguishers? I mean, how often should folks be checking their fire extinguishers, replacing how many fire extinguishers on average for a for a traditional sized house? Should people have that certain strategic locations?

Camber:
So there are strategic locations. The kitchen, obviously the garage, that's really your big main ones or a shop if you have a shop because that's where most of your stuff is going to happen. But it can happen anywhere. As far as checking them, most consumer fire extinguishers have little gauges on them and they say good or no good, right? As long as it's in that good, you're pretty much fine. They will also have expiration dates, though, and if it is expired, you should have a new one. And when you go get your new one, you want a multi type extinguisher because some extinguishers are just for electrical, some are just for things you can put water on. Basically, some are just for liquids. And then there's the ones that are for a little bit of everything. And that's the one you want to keep in your house because you don't know what's going to go up and you're not specifically trained. So you're going to want to keep that that general purpose everything extinguisher around, make sure you're checking the expiration date every year and check that little gauge. So even if that expiration date is not passed, right, it's another year out. But that little needle has fallen into the red and it says it's no good. It's no good. Don't don't risk it. Don't chance it. It's no good. Go get yourself a new one.

Katie:
As promised, here's a quick recap of some of the most important tips we talked about today. Our solid waste team handles some dangerous things and needs your help to stay safe. Never dispose of any propane or oxygen tanks in your garbage. These explode during garbage processing. When these are empty and the valve has been removed, they can be recycled for metal at the transfer station. If you're unsure of what to do, give the transfer station a call Used cooking oil should never go down your drains or into your garbage can. Return any oil used for frying back into the container. It came in and turn it into the transfer station for recycling.

Steve:
Hazardous chemicals should never go into garbage cans. This includes a whole host of products from unused paint, Drano, paint thinner and more. When in doubt, take it to the transfer station for disposal. Also, lithium batteries are in almost all electronics these days, but don't throw these away. They're extremely hazardous to our environment and can cause fires when damaged. Remove the batteries from any electronic device before disposal and turn these in at the transfer.

Katie:
After the holidays. There are a whole bunch of Christmas trees that need to be thrown away. Solid waste will recycle these trees for free, but they must be free of ornaments flocking Tencel and all other knickknacks. Cut the tree into three foot sections and set it out on your curb for free pickup. Electrical safety is something you should take very seriously if you plan to string up holiday lights, Never hook up more lights than what is recommended by the specific set of lights you are hanging and never overload an extension cord. Use properly rated outdoor electrical components and make sure all your lights are turned off If you go to bed or aren't at home. Holiday lights can and do start house fires every year.

Steve:
Candles smell good and are warm and cozy during this time of year, but they also start house fires every year. Keep all open, flame candles away from windows, holiday trees and decorations, and never leave candles burning unattended. Just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it won't. Kitchen fires and burns are also extremely common this time of year, especially when entertaining family and friends keep children out of the kitchen and make sure to rotate pot handles away from counter edges. For that matter. It's a good time of year to check all smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers. And don't forget, if it's a grease fire in your kitchen, don't put water on it. Use that fire extinguisher. Don't let a kitchen fire ruin your holiday dinner plans.

Katie:
Theft can happen any time of year, but be extra vigilant around the holidays. Don't leave packages or purchased items visible in your car and be sure to lock your vehicle behind you. And last but not least, buzz driving is drunk driving. No one needs a ticket or worse, an accident around the holidays. So if you put down a few, put down your car keys with that. Happy holidays, everyone.

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