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The holiday season is a time for family, friends and feasts. This may mean you will be spending more time than usual in the kitchen.
Cooking is the main cause of home fires any time of the year but it is especially common on Thanksgiving. The average number of home fires in residential buildings on this day is often double the number of home fires throughout the rest of the year.
Be smart about how you cook this season by following these ten tips:
- Stand by your pan. If you leave your kitchen, turn the burner off.
- Keep an eye on what you fry! Most cooking fires start when frying food.
- Roll up your sleeves. This reduces the chance that they’ll catch fire.
- Supervise children and pets. Make sure they stay away from the stove.
- Watch what you’re cooking! If you see any smoke, or grease starts to boil, turn the burner off.
- If there’s an oven fire, keep the door closed. Turn off the oven and keep the door closed until it’s cool.
- Move things that can burn away from the stove. This includes dishtowels, bags, boxes, paper and curtains.
- Turn pot handles toward the back of the stove. This is so no one can bump them or pull them over.
- Only use a turkey fryer outdoors. Make sure that it the fryer is on a sturdy surface, away from things that can burn.
- Check smoke alarms. Make sure to have working smoke alarms close to where anyone may be sleeping.
For more fire safety tips, visit the U.S. Fire Administration’s site. For more readiness tips, visit Ready.gov.
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