State fire officials are reminding people to be cautious this holiday season.
Thomas Cook is the acting state fire commissioner and he says a spike in electrical fires this time of year is due in part to many people plugging in too many items into an outlet.
“Each outlet in your home is rated for a specific amount of current. When you start using adapters, extension cords, power strips to continue plugging in additional strings of lights into that one outlet, you could actually overload that circuit, which then causes the wiring in the walls to heat up. If it heats up hot enough, it can actually ignite a fire,” Cook said.
Cook says using a power strip is one solution because it has a circuit breaker. He also suggests using modern LED holiday lights because they emit less heat.