During the chill of winter you may be supplementing your home with space heaters, candles, and more, but the Stuart Fire Department urges residents to not take fire hazards for granted this time of year.

Stuart Fire Department member Mike Kalbach encourages those with holiday decorations to turn off all light strings and other plugged-in decorations before leaving home or going to bed. Kalbach also reminds people to blow out lit candles when you leave a room or go to bed, “It’s just the little things that we overlook you know on there to be safe with. Blow out the candles, I unfortunately have gone and left a candle burning, it happens. And you can get lucky for so long and then there’s going to be that one time where you don’t get lucky.”

The National Fire Protection Association states that more than one-third of home decoration fires are started by candles. Kalbach also urges people not to overload power strips or sockets with space heaters and other appliances, and to keep heating units at least three feet away from curtains and other objects.