Unattended, Burning Candles - what do you think?
I just found out one of my tenants had left burning candles by the window. While I understand this may be a religious imperative, I am worried about the potential disastrous scenario: a burned out apartment/building. The lease doesn’t say anything about this, nor have we discussed it before. What do you think? Does it…
I just found out one of my tenants had left burning candles by the window.
While I understand this may be a religious imperative, I am worried about the potential disastrous scenario: a burned out apartment/building.
The lease doesn’t say anything about this, nor have we discussed it before.
What do you think? Does it go without saying that candles are never to be left unattended? Can I rightfully ask never to do this again? I am perfectly happy to have them burning while there is someone inside the apartment, or use electric ones otherwise (have no clue if they are acceptable.)
This is all about safety – am I being overly anxious? Have you had this experience? What is your view?
Thanks!
My father burns one of the aforementioned memorial candles on the anniversary of his mother’s death. If no one’s home, we move it into the kitchen sink, where it’s far removed from anything flammable.
You might also want to provide this link, which is NY1 coverage of an apartment fire caused by an unattended burning candle. Sometimes visuals carry more impact than text: http://bit.ly/g8LlVO
I know two separate persons who burned down their houses because they left candles.
Thank you all, your responses have been very helpful.
I need to have a conversation with them – I emailed them yesterday pointing out the potential accident and asking not to do it again.
I am going to print invisible’s links and hand them out, and use them as a way to convey my expectations.
Thank you very much.
Have u tried talking to the tenant about it? When I was young and stupid it just would not have occurred to me to blow out the chanukah candles before leaving the house, but if someone had pointed it out, I likely would have.
I would educate your tenants in fire safety. Print out the above brochures. But don’t expect they’ll read them – most people won’t – they aren’t interested and their eyes will glaze over (sad but true.)
Make your own 1 page list of the hightlights – fire safety rules you expect them to follow. Don’t expect they will read or remember that – tell them verbally as well. Post them in the hall if you want to really send a reminder.
See if they seem to be taking this in and saying they will use some common sense (it is amazing to me the common sense things I learned as a child, or can figure out myself, that others don’t seem to know.) If you get the sense that they are interested in learning about fire safety and complying, then good.
But you might realize that anyone who would leave a burning candle by a window either was never taught basic fire safety and/or has no common sense, and likely doesn’t have other knowledge about fire safety either. So you might want to cover more than candles with them when it comes to educating about fire safety. Like, for example, covering things you are frying – I knew someone who burned her entire kitchen down doing this – I asked “didn’t your mother teach you that you don’t cover something frying completely so as to close out all air or it could suddenly combust?” The answer was “no.” And her mother cooked – just didn’t pass the knowledge on. And think of all the people who grew up never cooking, and so who didn’t learn fire safety around stoves.
Then there are things I only learned later not to do – like leaving hair dryers plugged in. (Met someone who burned her bathroom down because plugged-in hair dryer on shelf fell off into bathroom sink while she was at work, turned itself on, and caused a big fire.) Like many people, I’d been told by someone years ealier that hair dryers can cause fires if you leave them plugged in, but I didn’t get how that happened, moreso than any of the other myriad appliances we always leave plugged in in our homes, so I didn’t unplug. After hearing the later fire story, I always unplug the hair dryer immediately after using it.
If you don’t get the sense that your tenants are interested in learning and complying, if they aren’t rent protected, get new tenants at the end of their lease. Stress fire safety practices in the interview. If people seem put out by that, then you know they aren’t the right tenants for you. (When a renter, I’d rather have landlords who knew about fire safety, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them burning my home down, so I wouldn’t feel put out.)
Knowing this stuff is not related to education level. It comes from parents, usually. Also, if they were scouts as kids, they probably learned some basic fire safety there. Likewise campers, backpackers, etc. probably know, but not always.
You can’t control all risky things your tenants might do. But you should take care of what you can control. The biggest risk of fire in the places I rented (and in my co-op, too) was not my actions, but the buildings’ insufficient electrical supply, resulting in overloaded circuits – you know, the apartments where the lights dim every time you iron, or even every time the AC or refrigerator cycles on. Separate outlets for AC help. Also, GFCI plugs in kitchen and bath can help prevent fires. If you don’t have them, and/or have insufficient electrical power to properly run the electrical stuff in your building, then I’d worry more about that stuff first than the tenants’ candles. Most home fires, I think, are electrical.
Most leases contain some text covering fires caused by neglect or other acts by Tenant, behavior which would cause the LL’s insurance premiums to increase, and/or compliance with governmental and other safety rules and regulations. We allow our tenants to burn prayer candles expressly manufactured for that purpose (i.e., in glass containers). They must be set on heatproof surfaces, well out of drafts and distant from any potentially flammable object. A burning candle set on a window sill is a fire hazard and absolutely prohibited. There are lots of realistic looking, flickering LED candles on the market now if that’s the window effect they’re after.
A tenant below us in a rental was burning candles on her window sill with curtains very close by. It made me very uneasy; especially with us living upstairs. There was no way I could have said anything to her and she would have dismissed me as worrying about something small. I think you have the right to be concerned and if I had a tenant doing this, I would put a stop to it.
Steve
Even if we’re talking about Chanukah candles, I think it’s within your rights to say no. In that case, it’s kind of an absurd issue because (1) Chanukah candles don’t burn more than 1 hour, anyway, and there’s no legitimate reason to light them and leave.
Well, there’s also Jewish memorial candles that burn for 24 hours, but those are usually in a glass, and don’t pose any danger. (we used to have them on the counter or in the sink).
I think it’s your call.