Beware of the dangers of candles this Halloween
Parents in Warwickshire are being urged to swap burning candles for safer LED lights in a bid to reduce the risk of children’s Halloween costumes and decorations catching fire.
The warning from Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards and Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service comes after the daughter of TV presenter Claudia Winkleman suffered serious burns when her outfit caught fire in 2014.
John Horner, portfolio holder for community safety at the county council, said: “Whilst children wear fancy dress outfits across the year, it is at Halloween that the danger of costumes catching light is often at its greatest, due particularly to the use of candles placed on the ground to light pumpkins.”
Councillor Philip Johnson, chair of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee added: “This year Trading Standards and Fire and Rescue are urging parents to protect their children by replacing naked flames with LED, electric candle, electric tea lights and other neon lighting.”
Warwickshire Trading Standards recently carried out fire safety tests on a small number of children’s dressing up costumes including Halloween vampire capes, witches and pumpkin outfits, available to purchase online.
Flammability tests of the fabric revealed that the Halloween clothing met the flame-retardant requirements of the toy safety regulations. However, Officers are anxious to point out that this does not mean the costume will not burn at all, only that if it did catch fire, it would burning slowly, giving children time to remove the outfit or parents an opportunity to put the flames out.
Trading Standards and Warwickshire Fire and Rescue have issued advice in the form or their ‘Halloween Code’ to help parents, schools and children’s centres keep children safe.
Advice includes always making sure costumes fit properly to avoid trips and falls, checking costumes for a CE mark, instructions and safety information, not using flames around children or costumes and to ensure that any masks or hoods don’t stop their child from seeing or breathing.
