Essex County Fire and Rescue Service is sharing safety advice to keep residents in Essex safe this Halloween.
Halloween might be different this year with covid-19 guidance but that doesn’t mean we can’t still have a happy and safe Halloween.
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service wants to help keep you safe this spooky season by providing suggestions for the many activities you can do safely at home instead.
Will Newman, Head of Prevention, said: “We are encouraging people to come up with some creative ways to celebrate this year. Our main advice we want to give this year is to use flameless candles and lights instead of wax candles. Children’s fancy dress costumes can be very flammable and as they are classed as toys, they don’t always need to meet the same fire safety guidelines as clothes – please make sure to check the labels inside the costume. We want to prevent the cases we have seen across the UK where children’s costumes set alight very quickly causing devastating injuries.
“We have come up with some ‘spooktacular’ ways that you and your family can celebrate safely this year:
“Stay home and create your own haunted house and use flameless or LED candles to create a spooky atmosphere. If you have to use wax candles, never give them to children to hold, even if it’s in a pumpkin. Never leave a lit candle alone, not even for a few seconds.
“Get cosy in your living room and have a scary movie marathon or why not organise a Zoom Halloween party this year? Dress up and stay in touch this Halloween and host a quiz or competition online while keeping yourself, family and friends safe.”
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service would like everyone to have a happy and safe Halloween so make sure you:
- Keep candles away from decorations and make sure to switch all lights and decorations off if you leave the house and before you go to bed
- Consider using LED candles or lights instead of wax candles in your pumpkin and around the home
- If wearing fancy dress, always keep well away from fire. They are very flammable and can cause devastating injuries
- Don’t use flammable materials to make home-made costumes. Be especially careful about using bin liners as capes
- Keep children away from naked flames and don’t let them carry lit candles or lanterns with a real candle in them
- Never leave lit candles unattended. Blow candles out when leaving the room, even if only for a moment and make sure to extinguish candles before you go to bed and if you leave the house