Keep your friends and family safe during celebrations this week

30 October 2024

Some young children with their parents excited as they trick-or-treat at a person front door

If you are celebrating this week, however you are enjoying the season, make sure you, and your friends and family, stay safe.

Now that the clocks have gone back and the evenings are getting darker and colder, here are our top tips for enjoying the celebrations safely.

Remember costumes and decorations can be highly flammable

As fancy dress costumes are toys, it means that they are not manufactured to the same safety standards or go through the same checks as normal clothing. This often means that they can ignite almost instantly and burn far faster.

When wearing any costumes, keep yourself and any friends or family away from naked flames and other heat sources – that includes naked flames such as candles in pumpkins. Keep naked flames out of the path of trick or treaters or away from decorations that could catch fire too. Try LED or flameless battery-powered candles to help reduce the fire risk – just ensure the battery compartment is secure.

Wearing layers can also help to not only keep you warm but provide a layer of protection between the costume and the skin if a costume did catch fire.

For more tips, visit the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service website.

Be visible and road safe before heading out trick or treating

It is important all year round to be visible when out and about by wearing bright or reflective clothing and to be aware of your surroundings and know about road safety.

With the clocks changing and the evenings getting darker even earlier – meaning that by Halloween it will be dusk by about 5 o’clock. Try adding reflective tape to any costumes and wear fluorescent glow stick jewellery and/ or accessories to stay visible.

To help make it easier to be aware of surroundings when out trick or treating:

Accompany children under 12
Encourage older children to put away their mobile phones so that they can concentrate on their surroundings and have a pre-planned route and emergency contact
Save masks for indoors and opt for face painting instead so it is still possible to look and listen for traffic
For more tips on visibility Maximise your visibility and your vision on the road | wirral.gov.uk

A halloween costume being held up and looked at by a member of the fire service and that has a tag on it that says 'flammable' — Credit: Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service

Know what to do if something was to go wrong

Ahead of Halloween, make sure that you but also any children know what to do if their costume was to catch fire. Stop drop and roll - practice stopping, dropping to the ground, covering your face with your hands, and rolling over a few times to put out the flames.

Lollipops, hard candy and mini eggs in particular can pose a chocking risk to young children so save the treats to enjoy when back at home. Learn more about choking prevention on the Child’s Accident Prevention Trust website.

In an emergency, always ring 999.