What about the number of injuries and/or deaths? The Homewood Alabama fire chief had
announced that he intends to enforce a little known fire ordinance on Christmas Eve requiring a permit to hold a candlelight service. Worse than that, the churches holding candlelight services will be required to hire 4 off duty fireman (regardless of the size of the church or number of persons participating) to be on-site at a cost of $100 each. This is an extraordinarily high cost especially for the smaller churches considering the candles stay lit for around 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.
Many questions have been raised, such as what can an off-duty fireman do other than call the fire department and help evacuate? What is the actual risk factor here? Is it any more dangerous than lighting a cigarette...filling a gas tank...having candles burning on tables in a restaurant or on a birthday cake? Here in the Bible belt, there may not be enough off duty fire fighters to accommodate the 4 per church to every church. Then again, there is a high probably that many of the services would have a fireman in attendance. Without statistics to support the danger, could this just be a way to generate bonus pay for fire fighters who are not working on Christmas Eve without it affecting the chief's budget?
Check out the full article. As for me, I am a member of a church in Vestavia Hills and we will have our Christmas Eve candle light service without the additional burden of hiring fire fighters. I believe God and a little common sense are all we need to have a safe celebration of the birth of Christ!
Merry Christmas to all!
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