Halloween Fire Safety: Tips From Your Local Firefighters

Halloween weekend at a glance

Three dates and a few habits cover the whole weekend:

• Friday, Oct 30 and Saturday, Oct 31, 2026: Hollywood Happy Hauntings, 6-9 PM each night, at the Bumpass Volunteer Fire Department, 96 Fredericks Hall Road.
• Every time you light a candle: keep anything that can burn at least 3 feet away.
• Before you decorate: keep doors and exit paths clear, and leave every smoke alarm uncovered.
• Sunday, November 1: the clocks go back an hour at 2 a.m. Test every smoke alarm and put fresh batteries in any alarm that uses replaceable ones.
• Any time: in an emergency, call 911.

Candles and jack-o'-lanterns

A candle is a heat source, so the same rule applies to it as to a fireplace or a space heater: keep anything that can burn at least 3 feet away.

On Halloween that takes more thought than usual, because there is more around to catch. Before you light a jack-o'-lantern, look at everything within 3 feet of it: paper decorations, a doormat, a curtain by the window, and costumes brushing past on the steps. A pumpkin on a busy front step sits right where people walk, so pick a spot where that 3-foot space stays clear all evening.

Indoors, the same check applies to candles on tables, shelves and windowsills. Look up as well as around, because a decoration hanging above a candle counts too.

Keep lighters and matches locked up and out of reach of children, both while you set up and after the candles are out.

Decorations: clear exits, uncovered alarms

Decorations tend to go where people walk: front doors, hallways and stairs. Keep exit paths and doors clear of clutter, so nothing slows anyone down if they need to get out. That goes for outside, too: the walk from your front door is part of your way out, so keep it clear.

Plan two exits from every room and a meeting place outside. If a decoration blocks a door or window that is part of your plan, move the decoration, not the plan. The Make a Home Fire Escape Plan guide walks through the whole plan step by step.

Smoke alarms need the same care. Never paint a smoke alarm or cover it with stickers or decorations; they can keep it from working. Streamers and fake cobwebs strung across a ceiling are easy to drape over an alarm without noticing, so check each alarm after you decorate. To check that your alarms are in the right places, see Where to Put Smoke Alarms.

When the decorating is done, walk through the house once: doors and exit paths clear, no decoration on or over an alarm, and nothing that can burn within 3 feet of a candle.

Costumes and kids: stop, drop and roll

If your clothes catch fire, running makes the fire burn faster. Teach children, and everyone else in your home, these three steps:

1. Stop where you are.
2. Drop to the ground and cover your face.
3. Roll over and over until the flames go out.

Practice before Halloween, in costume if the kids like, so the steps feel familiar. There is more under If your clothes catch fire in our kitchen fire guide.

Halloween is also a good time to talk about firefighters. Teach children never to hide from firefighters. In full gear, a firefighter can look like one more scary costume, but they are there to help.

A free Station Tour at BVFD shows this up close: a firefighter suits up in full turnout gear and air pack, so children see that the figure who may one day come for them is a neighbor, not a monster. You can book a free station tour through the community services page.

Sunday, November 1: clocks back, test your alarms

The clocks go back an hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1. Use that morning to test every smoke alarm in your home and put fresh batteries in any alarm that uses replaceable ones.

After that, keep the habit going all year:

• Test every alarm once a month.
• Replace 9-volt batteries, and the backup batteries in hardwired alarms, at least once every year.
• Replace the whole alarm 10 years from its manufacture date. While you test, check that date on each alarm, so you know which ones are due.

If an alarm starts to chirp, Why Is My Smoke Alarm Chirping? explains what the sound means and what to do about it.

Spend Halloween at the firehouse

Hollywood Happy Hauntings is on Friday, Oct 30 and Saturday, Oct 31, 2026, 6-9 PM each night, at the Bumpass Volunteer Fire Department, 96 Fredericks Hall Road.

• Free admission, no tickets. Food trucks sell their own food and drinks.
• Costumes are encouraged for all ages.
• The family zone offers spooky fun without the scary: a coloring station, a chance to climb aboard a real fire truck, and candy for the kids.
• Rain or shine, with free on-site parking.

Climbing aboard a real fire truck on a fun night is also a gentle way to make the fire service familiar to young children, which fits the lesson above about never hiding from firefighters.

Any changes will be announced on the Hollywood Happy Hauntings page, so check it before you head out.

When to call 911 or the station

In an emergency, call 911. If a candle, decoration or costume starts a fire you cannot put out, that is an emergency: get out using your planned exits, go to your meeting place outside, and call 911.

For questions that are not emergencies, such as where a smoke alarm should go, call the station's non-emergency line at 540-872-2400.

For the event times, the family zone and any last-minute changes, the Hollywood Happy Hauntings page is the place to look.