Festival Fire Safety: Diyas, Lights, Cooking and Crackers

Diwali, Durga Puja, Christmas, Eid, a wedding in the family: in India the festive season brings more lights, more diyas, more cooking and more guests than any other time of the year. Put together, they raise the chance of a fire. A few simple habits keep the celebration safe.

Lights and decorations

• Check every string of lights before you put it up. Throw away any with cracked wires, loose bulbs or burn marks.
• Do not run many light strings from one multi-plug adaptor, and do not use a damaged extension cord. Follow the maker’s limit on how many strings can be joined.
• Do not push wires under rugs or doors, or hide them behind cloth and paper decorations, where heat and damage go unnoticed.
• Choose flame-resistant decorations where you can, and keep paper and cloth décor away from lamps and heaters.
• Switch off decorative lights before you go to bed or leave the house.

Diyas, candles and agarbatti

An open flame needs space. Place diyas and candles on a steady surface that will not burn, such as a metal plate or a stone ledge, at least 30 cm (12 inches) away from curtains, garlands, rangoli paper and clothes, as US fire safety guidance advises. Keep them out of passages where people walk and where a child or pet could knock them over. Put them out before you sleep or go out. Never leave a diya, candle or agarbatti burning in an empty room.

Loose synthetic clothing, such as a nylon dupatta or a flowing saree pallu, catches fire easily. Be careful near the puja thali, the stove and crackers.

US figures show how common candle fires are. The NFPA estimated an average of 7,610 home candle fires a year in the US from 2014 to 2018, about 21 a day. India does not publish a comparable number.

Festival cooking

Festival cooking keeps the stove busy for hours, often with a kadhai of hot oil for puris, pakoras and sweets. In the US, cooking is the leading cause of home fires; the US Fire Administration estimated 167,800 residential cooking fires in 2023. The same risk sits in every Indian kitchen.

• Stay in the kitchen while frying. If you must step away, turn off the gas.
• Keep a lid next to the kadhai. If the oil catches fire, turn off the gas if you can reach the knob safely and slide the lid on from the side. Never pour water on burning oil.
• Keep towels, packets and decorations away from the stove.
• Do not cook when you are very tired or have been drinking.
• Check the LPG hose and regulator before the season starts.

Fireworks

The Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) advises a community display rather than every family handling crackers on its own. That is the safest choice. Where fireworks are allowed:

• check the current local rules on timing and type before you buy;
• buy only from licensed shops, and store crackers away from the puja flame, the kitchen, the stairs and exits;
• light them in an open space, never indoors, in narrow lanes or near parked vehicles, buildings or dry grass;
• have one sober adult in charge of the children;
• keep a bucket of water nearby and drop used sparklers and crackers into it;
• never relight a cracker that did not go off, and stay away from it for a while. It can still burst.

Guests and exits

With a house full of guests, footwear, gift boxes and extra chairs pile up at the door and in the stairwell. Keep the main door, the balcony, the corridor and the stairs clear. Test your smoke alarm before the guests arrive and tell them how to get out if there is a fire. Put 101, 112 and your full address where everyone can see them.

If someone gets burnt

If clothes catch fire, stop, drop to the ground and roll. Cool the burn under cool, clean running water for 20 minutes. Even 10 minutes helps if that’s all you can manage. No ice, toothpaste, oil or butter. Do not put any cream on it either. Cover it loosely with clean cling film or a clean cloth and get medical help. Call 108 for an ambulance if the burn is large or deep, if it is on the face, hands or private parts, or if the person breathed in smoke.

Before the next festival, walk from your puja room to the front door and move every carton, shoe rack and decoration that is in the way.