In addition to the holidays themselves, many people choose to celebrate the sea- son by decorating their homes with electric lights, candles, ban- ners, and wreaths. The Christmas tree is among the most popular of these decorations. The Bureau of the Census estimates that there were 101,041,000 households in America in 1998. According to the National Christmas Tree Asso- ciation, 33 million natural Christ- mas trees were sold that same year, which means that nearly one-third of American households had a live or cut Christmas tree inside the home. Each year, newspapers are filled with tragic stories of families killed by fires that are ignited by the family Christmas tree. As the season progresses and trees become drier, the incidence of Christmas tree fires worsens, as shown in Figure 1.