A study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission suggests that 85 percent of candle fires could be avoided if consumers followed three basic safety rules :
1.Never leave a melting / Burning candle unattended.
2.Never Melt / Burn a candle on or near anything that might catch fire.
3.Keep candles / melts out of the reach of children and pets.
It Does gets quite deeper than that. Listed below are a few simple rules you should follow to eliminate fire hazards, as well as getting the absolute best smell from your candles / melts ..
You should plan to melt / Burn your candle long enough, for the top to liquefy from edge to edge, this will maximize the life of your candle, as well as prevent tunneling (we all dislike that) .
With that being said, you shouldn’t ever melt your candle longer than 4 hours. Ignoring this could result in a fire .
Once only a small amount of wax remains in the bottom of your candle you should no longer melt your candle (say goodbye to your candle,its been real ). melting your candle to the bottom can cause heat damage to your surface, as well as, cracking and or shattering to the vessel, this could result in possible fire or harm !!!
Do not touch or try to move a molten / liquid candle / melt. The container could be very hot to the touch and liquid wax could spill from your container, resulting in burns ( ouch ) .
Always I mean always trim your wicks to a 1/4” before each burn, trimming the wick allows the flame to have a clearer and brighter burn. Keeping wicks shorter also means your candles will have a cleaner burn. (Some candles tend to create a black, sooty residue as well as mushrooming on the top of the wick when you burn them, trimming will help that)