Exercise caution with tree.

Byline: SUSAN PALMER The Register-Guard

COBURG - The festive little tree in the abandoned house was a goner from the get-go.

Coburg Fire District Chief Chad Minter bought the 4-foot-tall Douglas fir two weeks ago to fulfill a fire department ritual: the annual torching of the tree.

Fire departments usually do it outside the fire station, inviting journalists to photograph the event to get the word out about how fast and furiously Christmas trees can burn.

But context is everything, and since Minter already had an abandoned house scheduled for burning today in a training exercise, he invited the media Friday to see what a flaming tree looks like inside a house.

He put the fully decorated tree and wrapped packages in a corner of the living room of the old two-story frame house, spilled a teaspoon or two of lighter fluid on one of the packages under the tree and stepped back.

The packages burned sluggishly. The flames foundered. Minter leaned over and added some more lighter fluid and the flames leapt up, then burned back toward the tree.

A low branch caught and within seconds flames engulfed the lower branches.

In 20 seconds, the entire tree was burning. In 30 seconds, flames sheeted across the low ceiling and shot down the hallway.

In 45 seconds, the cameramen filming the burning tree were racing from the room. Firefighters then knocked down the flames and put out the pockets of fire burning nearby books, walls and ceiling. "And that's a little tree," Minter said, as he stood beside the blackened skeleton.

He figured the tree burned more slowly than you'd expect because all the windows in the house were broken out, allowing heat and smoke to escape. In an occupied two-story house, a sleeping family probably wouldn't be able to get out through the downstairs in time, even with a smoke alarm alert, Minter said.

Christmas tree fires burn so fast, firefighters rarely get to the scene before entire rooms are in flames.

"Something like this, it's going to be really quick. In five minutes you'd have the whole living room involved," he said.

Minter said at least one such fire happens every year in Lane County and a national consumer safety group estimates about 500 tree fires occur across the country each holiday season.

Minter doesn't want to throw a wet blanket on anybody's holiday cheer. Far from it. His message: Be careful. "Just be conscious," he said. "Even though a tree looks green, it's still going to burn really fast."

FIRE SAFETY TIPS

Trees: Give them plenty of water to keep them from drying out. Keep them away from heat sources, including fireplaces and heat vents. Dried-out trees should be discarded promptly. Keep lighted candles away from trees.

Lights: Inspect holiday lights for frayed wires, bare spots, gaps in insulation and broken or cracked sockets. Use only UL-approved light strings, don't overload electrical outlets and don't connect strings of lights to an extension cord before plugging the cord into the outlet. Don't leave lights on unattended.

CAPTION(S):

THOMAS BOYD / The Register-Guard A Christmas tree goes up in flames causing a light fixture to shatter and fall from the ceiling during a demonstration Friday by the Coburg Fire Department in a house that is scheduled to be burned as a firefighting exercise today. THOMAS BOYD / The Register-Guard A black hulk is all that remains of a Christmas tree.