Safety tips for cleaning gutters and hanging holiday lights

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – Beautiful weather during the late fall brings people outside to rake leaves and get them out of their gutters. But if you’re not careful, bad things can happen.

“If you just stop, take some time, plan out the activity, make sure that you’re doing it as safely as possible, have a serviceable ladder… these are kind of just common sense things, but we tend to make shortcuts at times, and that’s when we get into trouble,” explained Pvt. Sterling Rahe with Toledo Fire & Rescue.

It’s important to have someone with you to hold that ladder and watch out for your safety. “Make sure that again somebody is there with you, and don’t go to high,” said Pvt. Rahe. “With those stepladders, we don’t want people on the very top steps or the ones even below that. You want to stay a little lower, keep the center of gravity lower.”

The same applies to putting up Christmas lights, and you don’t want to be like Clark Griswold and put together too many strands of lights…

“The technology with the lights has gotten better, so they don’t draw as much power, which is good,” Pvt. Rahe told us. “But you still want to limit it and follow manufacturers guidelines on how many that you string together.”

You should also make sure that the lights are built to be outside. There are actually several companies in our area that will take care of your gutters and lights.

“If you’re not comfortable getting up on a ladder or trying to clean out your gutters and hang up Christmas lights… maybe enlist one of those companies and get some folks out there that are the experts,” said Pvt. Rahe.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission says that on average, 160 people per day suffer decorating-related injuries during the holiday season, and almost half of those involve falls.

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