Worcester, Mass. — The holiday season is here and most of us have our Christmas trees up.
Is it real or is it fake? And is one safer than the other?
At Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), members of the student chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers held a Christmas tree fire demonstration.
“It’s really quite incredible just how much power one single burning tree has,” said Christian Vogt, burn chair of the experiment at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Fire Protection lab.
For the first time, students at WPI burned both a real tree and an artificial one to see the difference.
Both trees went up in flames in a matter of seconds, but the real tree burned a bit quicker, while the fake one had more heavy black smoke.
“The smoke was really like very visible that the smoke that came out of the plastic tree was just incredibly noxious,” said Vogt.
Vogt says it’s hard to say whether one tree is safer than the other even though fake trees are marketed as fire-resistant.
“It doesn’t burn as strongly as the real tree, the problem with that is it might promote the production of toxic gases a lot more than the real tree does,” said Vogt.
Vogt says the best way to stay safe is to be proactive.
According to the National Fire Protection Agency, an average of 155 homes are set ablaze in the United States due to Christmas trees.
Keep your tree at least 3 feet away from any heat source.
If it’s real, water it daily to keep it hydrated.
Remove it shortly after Christmas, and always use lights with safety certifications.
“The device should have a little circle with a UL inside that just says that underwriter’s laboratory has tested this item and they found it to be safe,” said Vogt.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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