--- title: Researchers Show Fire Risk of Christmas Trees in Simulation description: A simulation has shown how quickly a fire from a Christmas tree can spread, highlighting the dangers that the holiday decoration can risk. canonical: https://time.com/4588781/christmas-tree-fire-warning/ author: Suyin Haynes article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-02T16:26:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:55:37.420Z og:title: Researchers Show Fire Risk of Christmas Trees in Simulation og:description: A simulation has shown how quickly a fire from a Christmas tree can spread, highlighting the dangers that the holiday decoration can risk. og:url: https://time.com/4588781/christmas-tree-fire-warning/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt522519be02995a16/698875d20b72e384726e7516/baby-elf-on-the-shelf.jpg?branch=production&width=508&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 508 og:image:height: 286 og:image:alt: 548554371 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Researchers Show Fire Risk of Christmas Trees in Simulation twitter:description: A simulation has shown how quickly a fire from a Christmas tree can spread, highlighting the dangers that the holiday decoration can risk. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt522519be02995a16/698875d20b72e384726e7516/baby-elf-on-the-shelf.jpg?branch=production&width=508&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is How Quickly a Christmas Tree Fire Can Turn Into a Blazing Inferno > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=6cfd9e01-5a69-4d26-8c7b-89bfae3b1f91&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: This Is How Quickly a Christmas Tree Fire Can Turn Into a Blazing Inferno [Watch (HLS stream): This Is How Quickly a Christmas Tree Fire Can Turn Into a Blazing Inferno](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MN3DC3x2.m3u8) (1:16)  _Published 2016-12-02. A new simulation might make you think twice about piling another set of lights onto your Christmas tree_ by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Dec 2, 2016 4:26 PM UTC A new simulation might make you think twice about piling another set of lights onto your Christmas tree by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Dec 2, 2016 4:26 PM UTC A new simulation might make you think twice about piling another set of lights onto your Christmas tree, showing how quickly the holiday decoration can turn your house into an inferno. Researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts [set up a mock living room](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfrAbtyr1%5Fg) complete with carpet, sofa and curtains, and recorded how quickly a fire on the tree could spread. The video shows a cloud of smoke build up within a few seconds, with most of the tree being consumed by the fire 20 seconds after the simulation started. After one minute, the room becomes completely engulfed in flames in what is termed a ‘flashover’. Raymond Ranellone, the Institute’s Fire Lab Director, said “What makes these trees so dangerous is that it is a significant fire load that we are adding into our houses, and then we’re not properly caring for them.” Ranellone and the Institute’s researchers hope that the video will promote safety over the festive season, and will encourage people to not overload their Christmas trees with electrical appliances. ## Transcript [ SOUND ] What we'll see in just a couple of seconds is we're already getting a lot of smoke building up and it's only been 20 seconds since we started the fire and you can see that most of the tree has already been consumed. [ SOUND ] This has only been one minute since time of ignition and we are seeing that the carpet has not ignited. And that is an indication of what we call flash over. Where the room has gone from local burning at the tree To complete room involvement. So in your home, that would be your entire living room on fire in just over one minute. [ INAUDIBLE ] [ NOISE ] What makes these trees so dangerous is that it's a significant fireload that we are adding into our houses and we are not properly caring for them . So, in terms of care we are talking about Daily watering to make sure that we have water in the basin, that the tree is always well hydrated. But we're also talking about not overloading the tree with electrical appliances such as lights. 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