ARLETA : Vendors Must Attach Safety Tags to Trees

Los Angeles Fire Chief Donald O. Manning knows what different kinds of blazes sound like.

Monday morning, he described how a dry Christmas tree sounds when it catches fire: “It just goes, ‘PHHHRRHHUH!”’ the chief said, raising his arms high and wide and making a sucking noise that sounded like a rocket taking off.

Manning’s department is called to about 300 Christmas-tree-related fires each winter. And, every Christmas season, there are deaths, he said. Inevitably, children among them.

Manning stood in a Christmas tree lot in Arleta with Councilman Richard Alarcon, who persuaded the Los Angeles City Council to pass an ordinance this year requiring all Christmas tree vendors to attach fire safety warning tags to the trees.

“It seems like common sense,” Manning said, “but it happens every year. The tree catches fire, someone dies. It happened right around the corner this year on Jan. 4.”

Manning was referring to a 3-year-old Sylmar boy who died after a Christmas tree caught fire in his home. Several weeks earlier, a 16-month-old Compton girl died when one of her sisters set fire to a Christmas tree while playing with a cigarette lighter.

Last year, Manning said, 22 people were seriously injured in blazes stemming from Christmas trees that caught fire. The most common causes: lighted candles placed on or close to trees, unsafe or old Christmas lights placed on trees, and children playing with matches or lighters near trees.

But Manning said he feels the new warning labels, which consumers should leave on the trees after purchase, will reverse the deadly Yuletide trend.

The new red and white tags, decorated with a drawing of a snowman, list important safety information such as encouraging tree owners to make fresh cuts in the trunk and placing the tree in a stand with water. Other measures include checking all Christmas lights for frayed cords or empty sockets, turning off the lights at night, never lighting candles near the tree, and testing smoke detectors.

The city has printed 410,000 tags in English, Spanish and Korean, Alarcon said.

“With these tags, we’ve come up with a novel way to better inform the people of Los Angeles about the dangers that Christmas trees can bring. The idea is simple: With this little notification, we can decrease the threat of loss of life from fire,” Alarcon said.

The tags will be distributed to Christmas tree vendors when they receive city permits to sell the trees, Manning said. There is no penalty for vendors who don’t attach the tags, but vendors who don’t cooperate may be denied permits in the future, Alarcon said.

Greg and Angel Guerra, managers of the Christmas tree lot on Van Nuys Boulevard where Manning and Alarcon spoke, said they sell between 1,000 to 1,500 Christmas trees each season.

“People do ask questions about safety,” Greg Guerra said.

“But sometimes it’s so busy, we don’t have time to tell them everything, or they don’t have time to ask,” Angel Guerra said. “This way it’s all there for them to read.”