CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Planning on giving your Valentine a bouquet of foil balloons? Well, you may want to hang tight!
ComEd has a few safety suggestions for those looking for a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift.
The power company said foil or mylar balloons often end up entangled in power lines causing outages, even fires.
That's why it recommended keeping balloons secured or attached to weights if they're displayed outside and to properly dispose of balloons by puncturing them to release any helium.
Believe it or not, there are 250 power outages each year due to foil balloons affecting almost 75,000 customers.
Here are a few safety precautions ComEd suggested:
— Keep balloons secured inside of homes or attached to weights if displayed outside.
— Properly dispose of foil balloons by puncturing them to release helium and prevent escape.
— Refrain from touching a power line to retrieve a balloon or any object entangled with electrical equipment.
— Assume power lines are always live, and keep a safe distance of at least 10 feet from active lines.
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