I wish I had the picture to go with this story! It was hysterical!
Rhode Island Statehouse Christmas tree dead from flame retardant
By Ray Henry, Associated Press Writer | December 22, 2005
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --It's a Charlie Brown Christmas for Rhode Island's official Christmas tree.
The 18-foot Colorado Blue Spruce lost its needles and died after Statehouse workers dried it with commercial fans and sprayed it with a fire-retardant chemical. The workers were following the stringent new fire code enacted after a deadly 2003 nightclub blaze.
Decked in white lights beneath the rotunda just last week, the balding embarrassment was ignominiously hustled out of the building on Wednesday night.
Gov. Donald Carcieri sheepishly explained the tree's demise -- and suggested the state might get an artificial replacement next year.
"With the new fire code, we're supposed to spray it," he told WPRO-AM. "And apparently the spray killed it."
Rhode Island law designates Christmas trees as "flammable vegetation" and regulates their display in public buildings. Until recently, Christmas trees in public buildings had to be doused with fire retardant, said Tom Coffey, executive director of the Fire Safety Code Board of Appeal and Review.
The state lifted that requirement on Dec. 6, Coffey said, but that was too late for the Statehouse tree, which was put up Nov. 25.
Lawmakers overhauled the state's fire code after a February 2003 blaze in a West Warwick nightclub killed 100 people and injured 200. At first, the code banned Christmas trees in public buildings. But tree farmers fought to have that section removed in exchange for safeguards that include posting the tree's watering schedule nearby.
A properly watered tree is not a fire hazard, says Al Bettencourt, executive director of Rhode Island's Farm Bureau, who once tried proving the point during an appearance on a cable television show.
"First we tried to light it with matches -- couldn't do it," he said. "Then we took out a 50,000 BTU blowtorch and we turned that onto the tree."
The pine crackled, he said, but never caught fire.
Bettencourt and a team of farmers rushed Thursday to get a replacement tree from a West Greenwich farm. The task proved complicated because the law also requires a fire marshal to be on hand when a tree destined for public display is cut down, to ensure freshness.
"This one will not be sprayed," promised Steve Kass, a spokesman for the governor
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