Chippewa Valley Fire Agencies Wrap Up Keep the Wreath Green

Chippewa Valley Fire Departments are sharing results from their “Keep the Wreath Green” campaign to promote fire safety during the holidays.

Each year the Eau Claire, Altoona, and Township Fire Departments place a five foot wreath filled with green lights outside their stations. Every time they respond to a structure fire during the holiday season, one of those green lights is replaced with a red light. The goal of the campaign is to make it through the holiday season with no red lights on the wreaths, a goal the Chippewa Valley community did accomplish in 2024.

Jason Knecht is a Fire Inspector with the Eau Claire Fire Department, and shared the results of the campaign this year.

“In 2025, we had one in Eau Claire that displaced a family in a house and Township Fire had two, however those were out buildings, like sheds or garages where they didn’t displace a family, and Altoona had zero,” he said. “So total, we had three between the three agencies, but only one family displaced.”

While this year’s campaign was not as successful as the zero structure fires in 2024, the average number of holiday fires has still ticked down significantly over the years. Knecht credited the campaign for contributing to that improvement, saying it provides people with a visible reminder to take fire safety precautions every time they drive by one of the stations. He also stressed the importance of having working smoke detectors in the home.

“Unfortunately there were 57 deaths in the home, so 57 fire deaths in the state of Wisconsin,” he said. “Three out of five of those fires did not have working smoke detectors. Either they didn’t have them at all in the home or if they had them, they didn’t have fresh batteries and they weren’t working.”

To address that issue, the City of Eau Claire is currently running a smoke detector giveaway program. Anyone who owns a home in the City is eligible to receive up to four smoke detectors for free.

Fire Department officials will install the smoke detectors and conduct a fire safety analysis of the home. Additionally, Knecht is reminding local residents to plan ahead for the possibility of a fire by making sure they have multiple ways to exit each room in their home and designating a safe meeting place to gather with their family if they do need to escape a home fire.