Here’s how to keep your living room from catching on fire this Christmas

It only took about 30 seconds for a Christmas tree with glowing lights to be consumed by flames after Myrtle Beach Fire Department firefighters lit it in a safety demonstration Wednesday morning.

Crews used a long torch to set the tree ablaze as a beacon of warning for real Christmas tree lovers to keep in mind that maintaining a tree’s water level is important.

Two different dry Christmas trees, each tucked into a festive corner in a living room scene within a training structure at Myrtle Beach Fire Station 3 off Kings Highway, quickly blazed when lit, and it took no time at all before flames crawled across the ceiling and black smoke filled the structure.

“We’re having our Christmas tree demonstration out here today to kind of show the difference between a watered tree, or a fresh tree, versus a dry tree,” said Lt. Jonathan Evans, spokesman with the Myrtle Beach Fire Department.

Evans said it doesn’t take long for those dry conditions of the tree combined with its needles to burn once a fire gets going.

“The dry tree goes up pretty quick. Those pine needles, they don’t last long, under 30 seconds and that tree was gone,” he said.

Crews also burned a watered tree, and it took at least a minute and a half to two minutes before the tree in the Christmas corner was engulfed in flames, much more than the two that went up in just seconds.

Evans offered some of the following safety tips for holiday decorating and the winter season:

Christmas trees: If you use a real one make sure to keep it watered, and toss it once the season wraps up.

“Just keeping it watered. That is probably the most important (thing), just making sure you’re keeping it fresh as possible. It is a dead tree by the time you cut it down, and it’s going to continue to get dried out. So keep it watered for as long as you can, and then once the season’s over, get rid of that. Get that fire hazard out of your home, and dispose of it properly. There’s plenty of places that recycle it,” Evans said.

Candles : If you’re going to use real candles, makes sure they’re on a level surface and not around children or pets. He said artificial ones can be a safer alternative.

Lights: “If you’re using holiday lights make sure you’re not plugging more than three strings in at a time. At lot of times they’re only meant for no more than three,” Evans said.

More on lights: “Make sure you’re using the right ones. Indoor, outdoor, they’re different types. … If you’re putting stuff outdoors, make sure it’s rated for outdoors, and that goes for electrical cords as well. It’s very important to look at those things when you’re doing those decorations, and make sure you’re taking proper safety precautions,” Evans said.

Those chilly nights: “If you have to use a space heater make sure it’s at least two or three feet away from walls, people things like that,” Evans said.

Smoke detectors are always in season: “Smoke detectors are always important any time of year. They never sleep. They always … keep you safe, even when you’re not awake and aware yourself. Maintaining your smoke detectors is very important, checking them very month, changing those batteries every year, and then very 10 years you want to replace the detector completely. So it’s very important to have those up and operational,” said Evans, who recommended having one in each room where a person sleeps and every level of a home.

This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Here’s how to keep your living room from catching on fire this Christmas."