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 Engineering Laboratory /                  Fire Research Division
      National Fire Research Laboratory

    
    Breadcrumb
        Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)Fire Hazards of Dry Versus Watered Christmas Trees

            Research Overview
                                These experiments were designed to examine the difference in fire hazard between a dry Christmas tree and a watered Christmas tree for fire safety awareness. One dry tree (no water after harvesting) and one watered tree was tested with no replicates. The test specimens were approximately 2.1 m (7 ft.) tall Douglas fir trees cut fresh from a local Maryland tree farm approximately four weeks prior to testing. The watered tree was placed in a bucket of water within 3 hours of being harvested and a fresh cut was made approximately 50 mm (2 in.) from the base of the trunk prior to placement in the water. Both the dry tree and watered tree were stored indoors until the day of the test. For fire testing, each tree was placed in a mockup of a corner of a living room constructed to provide background for video recording and not to replicate a specific or typical living room. The ignition source was a book of matches with the match heads wrapped with a thin nickel-chromium wire that heats, igniting the matchbook, when electricity is applied. Three attempts were made to ignite the watered tree during which the ignition source and position of fuel adjacent to the ignition source were varied, however, no sustained ignition of the tree was achieved. For the dry tree, ignition of the tree was achieved on the first attempt and a peak heat release rate of 7362 kW was reached 31 s after ignition.


                  MS. Hoehler,  MF. Bundy,  L. DeLauter, R. Materese, L Gerskovic and JR. Garcia, Fire Hazards of Dry Versus Watered Christmas Trees, NIST Technical Note 2131, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, December 2020
  https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2131
                                        Behind the scenes photos and the final video from NIST Public Affairs Office
  https://www.nist.gov/topics/fire/why-you-should-water-your-christmas-tree
  

      

      Experiment Name
                            Plot of Heat Release Rate
                                                  Ignition Photo
                                                  Date/Time
                                                  Specimen
                                                  Fuel TypeSort ascending
                            Test Duration (min)
                            Total Heat Released (MJ)
                            Peak HRR (kW)WateredTree3
                            Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
                                                                                        Ignition
                                                                                        11/08/2017 4:15:35 AM EST
                                                                                        watered pine tree, upholstered chair and shelf in room corner
                                                                                        Cellulose, Plastic
                            4.05
                            below detection limit
                            6.7Dry_Pine_Tree
                            Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
                                                                                        Ignition
                                                                                        11/08/2017 5:12:01 AM EST
                                                                                        dry pine tree, upholstered chair and shelf in room corner
                                                                                        Cellulose, Plastic
                            16.55
                            938
                            7,362

      Bryant, R. and Bundy, M. The NIST 20 MW Calorimetry Measurement System for Large-Fire Research, Technical Note (NIST TN) 2077, 2019https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2077
        NIST Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)https://doi.org/10.18434/mds2-2314

      Last Updated May 14, 2021
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