This New Year is a major event – a brand new decade! While you’re planning your evening or maybe even getting ready to host a party, it’s important to spend some time to focus on New Year’s Eve security and safety. Read on to find out important safety information for celebrating the new year, and tips to help ensure you can revel without worry.
Minimize Fire Hazards
The last thing you want to do during a New Year’s party is evacuate due to a fire. Unfortunately, the winter holidays have statistically high numbers of house fires. These are due to several factors:
Decorations
Every year, nearly 200 home fires are started with Christmas trees. Likewise, an estimated average of 780 home fires began with decorations other than the tree. The holidays have plenty of decorations all through to the New Year, when most people finally take them down. Most of these decorations are highly-flammable.
When heat sources, like candles or fireplaces, are added to the mix – a housefire becomes a genuine risk. But you can prevent them! Keep decorations as far from heat sources as possible. This includes fires and candles, but also space heaters or other appliances. Anything heat-producing could ignite a decoration.
Sparklers & Fireworks
New Year’s Eve celebrations are nothing if not flashy! And one of the most popular additions to any celebration, big or small, are fireworks and sparklers. While everyone enjoys the visuals of a firework show, and sparklers can be a great holiday novelty, they’re also massive fire hazards.
Even when they work as planned, both fireworks and sparklers require fire to function. Careless use could cause them to fall onto flammable surfaces or spread sparks to nearby objects. Additionally, fireworks don’t always work exactly as planned! If one misfires, or flies in an unexpected direction, it could explode in your home, a neighbor’s home or another nearby area and could start a fire.
Fires can happen quickly – and when they do, every second matters. Homeowners need to regularly test their smoke detectors. However, their primary goal is to alert you and little else. The best way to protect your family and your home is a fire detection system connected to a home security system. In addition to identifying a fire, it can help ensure the fire department is contacted as soon as possible in a housefire.
Hosting a Party? Limit Your Guest List
If you decide to host your own New Year’s Eve party, you should keep your guest list tight. Just because you’re the host, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get to enjoy your party too! Invite only close friends and family. This means you’ll recognize everyone attending – which not only lets you enjoy the party without worrying about strangers, but it also reduces the risk of crashers.
While some party crashers just want to partake in free food and drinks, others may be more malicious. An open invitation for a party creates a risk of strangers showing up and ruining the evening.
Create a list and stick to it! Allowing a plus one for each guest is often more than enough to liven up a party without letting it get out of hand.
Keep an Eye on Your Property
The end of the year usually involves a lot of travel. Families get together, friends visit each other and thousands of homes are left unattended. New Year’s Eve security is critical because it’s a popular time for theft! If you’re out-and-about, you need to keep your home protected.
The two best ways? A security system and integrated security cameras. You could be enjoying a party halfway around the world and know your home is safe. In the unfortunate event that a break-in does occur, you’ll be notified – as well as law enforcement. This means you’ll be able to relax and enjoy your New Year’s festivities without wondering what could be happening back at home.
If you want a more direct eye on your home, a remotely accessibly security camera lets you instantly check-in on your home no matter where you go. Our security cameras are easily accessible on any Internet-enabled device, allowing you to look at what’s going on back home any time you feel uneasy.
Beware of Gift Thieves
One of the most common holiday security tips is to be aware of how much you announce new gifts and holiday purchases like large TVs, new appliances or other gadgets. These devices are not only typically expensive, they’re often easy to move around. These are the exact type of targets thieves look for!
Burglars often stalk around on New Year’s Eve to look for empty houses. If trash cans and recycling show signs of big-ticket electronics, they’ll make sure to add your house to their list of ones to break into if they know nobody is home.
One way to trick them is with automated lights or remote-controlled lights. The illusion of being home is often enough to keep them away. Burglars only want the easiest targets. Timers can be effective, but even those have been used enough to be identified. Home automation devices can let you remotely turn lights on or off, which is much more convincing than a light on a timer programmed to change at the same time each night.
Going Out? Save Social Posts for When You Get Back
Parties and social media often go hand-in-hand. This doesn’t mean you should spend the night snapping pictures and uploading them to your accounts! Remember, nothing on the Internet is truly private. You never know who has access to your feeds or who will share the photos you post.
Burglars love social media because it can give them all kinds of information. If you posted a picture of the new computer you got for Christmas, then post about the party you’re at, you could be marking yourself as a good opportunity for thieves to profit.
Don’t worry – you can always post the pictures later. As an added bonus, saving the social media frenzy for the next day lets you enjoy more of the party!
Contact Us Today to Secure Your Home!
Continue to keep your home and family safe! Our security experts can perform a security evaluation and provide custom-designed, integrated security solutions backed by award-winning, 24-hour local monitoring. Contact us today!
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