TERRE HAUTE, Ind.– Rich Gallagher, a Terre Haute firefighter for almost 30 years and president of the “Protect the Precious” program has some fire safety the holidays.

One that immediately comes to mind is changing fire alarm batteries regularly to ensure they work properly.

“We try to remind everybody that at the first of the month, check your detectors,” he said. “And we tell people to change their batteries when the time changes in the spring and fall. That way, you’ve got a good battery.”

Gallagher brought up a variety of other Christmas-related fire concerns:

• Space heaters — “The biggest problem is if they get next to a curtain or a bedding or just something that could catch fire. You want to try to keep them about three feet away from anything that’s combustible. You want to plug them directly into the wall. You don’t want to use an extension cord from the heater to the outlet.”

Gallagher and his fellow firefighters have witnessed first-hand the deadly results of space heaters triggering residential fires.

“It’s supplemental heat for most people,” he pointed out. “But for other people, it’s their only source of heat. If it’s supplemental heat, you just want to keep it on and keep the room warm. When it’s unattended, you want to unplug it.”

• Candles — “With candles, [the number of fires] does increase during the holiday season. The main thing is you want to be there anytime a candle is lit. You don’t want to leave it unattended. … And when you go to bed at night, blow ’em out. I’ve read a figure that a third of your [Christmas season] fires start in the bedroom.”

Gallagher also warned parents not to let their children light candles.

“If you let ’em light it once, then they’re always going to want to light it and play around with it,” he explained. “They could easily get burned. … Then there’s a lot of people who have pets. If you have [lit] candles around, they could accidentally hit ’em with their tail or whatever and cause ’em to fall and catch something on fire. The pets could also catch fire.

“Another problem we see at Christmas time is you’re going to have tablecloths with a candle on them. Sometimes a child might be by that tablecloth and accidentally pull it and all of a sudden your candle gets mixed with your tablecloth and that could cause a fire.”

• Christmas trees and decorations — “Whether it’s fresh or dry, you want to keep it watered daily. It has to be watered. … But no matter how much you water it, it’s going to get dry sooner or later.”

Gallagher said fresh trees are preferred over dry trees. Plus, there’s always the option of using artificial trees (along with battery-operated candles).

“I don’t want to make anybody scared of real trees,” he noted. “If you take the right precautions, you should have no problem. The best thing to do is go out and cut your own tree. That way, you know when it’s been cut. It’s fresh right then. And if you’re buying a stand, what you want to do is press the needles and make sure they don’t break. You might tap the tree on the ground and if a lot of needles fall, it’s probably a pretty dry tree.”

Another warning from Gallagher: Don’t put your Christmas tree in a doorway.

“One of your exits out of your house could be blocked if something does occur,” he said.

• Miscellaneous — “It doesn’t hurt to have a couple extra extinguishers at Christmas time. If you catch a fire when it’s small, you can get it out. But our suggestion is, if it gets going, just get out of the house.”

Gallagher also mentioned that children should be kept at least three feet away from the stove while an adult is cooking Christmas dinner, or any other dinner for that matter.

“Always keep your pot handles in,” he added. “If a little kid hits one of those, whatever is hot in there pours on them.”

In closing, Gallagher stressed that families should devise an escape plan in case an item in the house does catch fire.

“Discuss having a meeting place outside,” he emphasized. “If you don’t have a meeting place outside your home and you’ve got four people living in your house and you’ve got three of those people over here [outside during a fire] and you don’t know where the fourth person is … someone will go back inside looking for that fourth person, even if he’s not there. A mother or a father is going to go back in for a child, so it’s imperative to have a place to meet — a tree, a car — just have a plan.”

Hughes writes for the Terre Haute, Indiana Tribune Star.