Valentine’s Day is a romantic holiday for most and one of the most popular days for burning candles, but with that comes safety hazards if you’re not careful.

Perry Fire Chief Chris Hinds says it’s all about being responsible..

“Over eight thousand fires a year can be attributed to candles.  That’s candles that are left unattended, the birthday candles that you pull out of the cake and throw into the garbage and one of them is still smoking or whatever and the next thing you know you have a fire” says Hinds.

In addition, more than 900 injuries are reported each year that involve the improper use of candles.  This includes setting candles on something that is not fireproof, not fully extinguishing flames and not keeping an eye on the candles when they are burning.

“You always want to have some sort of heat resistant surface under your candles.  Never, never allow your wick trimmings and stuff like that to remain on top of your burning candle because it just provides more fuel for a bigger flame and it’s easy for that stuff to, as the wax burns and runs out, spread the flame across the candle.  Never set a candle close to a window that’s open where you’ve got curtains that may blow or something like that.”

Chief Hinds also reminds parents to keep candles away from children and pets.