Horrifying video demonstrates just how quickly a Christmas tree fire can turn 'devastating and deadly'.
Before we all get a bit far into the festive spirit and down a few too many Bailey's, there's a few health and safety warnings the National Fire Protection Association wants you to be aware of. Prepare to leap up from the sofa to tend to your tree:
A video uploaded to YouTube by the National Fire Protection Association shows a nicely decorated Christmas tree in the corner of the room with presents underneath. A timer can also be seen sat ominously on the floor next to the tree.
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A voice then counts down to ignition and a brief spark flashes - as if a plug socket has just malfunctioned - and it doesn't take long for a glimmer of flames to start flickering away within the tree.
Just 10 seconds later, the whole top of the tree is on fire, the flames billowing onto the ceiling and around the rest of the room.
Another 10 seconds later, and most of the room is engulfed by the fire, decorations falling from the wall and Christmas very much ruined.
The video states: "A dry tree can catch fire and burn faster than newspaper. From 2010 to 2012 there were an estimated annual average of 200 fires where the Christmas tree was the first item ignited, resulting in 10 deaths, 20 injuries, and $17 million in property loss."
And then it exemplifies how quickly a tree burns if it's been watered. The answer? Much slower.
The video was uploaded in 2015, however its message still stands: water your tree daily.
The caption reads: "A live Christmas tree burn shows just how quickly a dried-out Christmas tree burns, with flashover occurring in less than one minute, as compared to a well-watered tree, which burns at a much slower rate.
"Take care to water your tree, so that it doesn’t become a fire hazard.
"This live burn was conducted by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)."
And people are flooding to the video in horror after realising just what a fire hazard a dry tree can be.
One YouTube user wrote: "Wow, that is genuinely terrifying... less than 50 seconds and it's completely out of control. I'd say just 10 seconds that it was out of control."
"Geez, I cannot get over how fast and how much that fire grew! It makes me thankful that I happened to see this after Christmas, after we had already taken down our tree!" another added.
And a third commented: "*Looks over at Christmas tree next to me* 'You better not try anything'."
Topics: Christmas, Social Media, YouTube
Poppy Bilderbeck