Keep Safe This Halloween

Halloween is creeping up on us in a couple weeks, and the Marietta Fire Department offers tips to keep your kids safe when they go trick or treating.

Safety Tips for Trick-or-Treating

• When choosing a costume, stay away from billowing or long-trailing fabric
• If you are making your own costume, choose material that won't easily ignite if it comes into contact with heat or flame
• If your child is wearing a mask, make sure eye holes are large enough so they can see out
• Give flashlights to kids so they can see or add glow sticks to their costumes
• If your children are going to Halloween parties at other people's homes, encourage them to look for ways out of home and plan how they would get out in emergency

Tips for Around the House

• Keep dried flowers, cornstalks and crepe paper, which are highly flammable, away from open flames and heat sources, including light bulbs and heaters
• It is safest to use flashlight or battery-operated candles in jack-o-lantern
• If you use real candle, use extreme caution
• Make sure to watch children at all times when candles are lit
• When lighting candles inside jack-o-lanterns, use long fireplace-style matches or utility lighter
• Be sure to place lit pumpkins away from anything that can burn and far enough away from trick-or-treaters, doorsteps, walkways and yards
• Remember to keep exits clear of decorations, so nothing blocks escape routes
• Tell children to stay away from open flames
• Be sure kids know how to stop, drop and roll if their clothes catch on fire
• Have them practice stopping immediately, dropping to ground, covering their face with hands, and rolling over and over to put flames out
• Use flashlights as alternatives to candles or torch lights when decorating walkways and yards