Thanksgiving Safety

11/8/2016 (Permalink)

This information is from the National Fire Protection Association.

Did you know that Thanksgiving is the leading day of the year for home fires involving cooking equipment? Follow these tips to ensure that you can enjoy the holidays with family and friends eating delicious food and thinking about what you’re most thankful for!

1. Pay attention! Don’t get distracted by having too much going on at once. Keep a close eye on everything you have cooking and never leave the kitchen unattended.
2. Don’t cook while intoxicated. Although the holidays are a time to relax and let loose, make sure you do not have too much to drink while cooking/baking.
3. Keep a lid handy to smother the flames. Fires can start very quickly. Make sure you’re prepared any event that may erupt.
4. Do NOT pour water on a grease fire. Water may be your first thought to put on any fire, but for a grease fire it will not help. If possible, you can cover the grease fire to attempt to remove oxygen from the flame. Pouring baking soda on the flames will also help deprive the flames of oxygen and put out the fire.
5. Consider purchasing a smart stove which will extinguish fires or turn off automatically by itself. It is amazing what technology has been developed! There are many different types of smart stoves which have many different functions. Some of which you can connect remotely to your cooktop and oven to control the settings remotely.
6. Keep flammable items away from the stove top. This may seem obvious, but when you are trying to make 3 things at once, it can be easy to set something down on or near the cooktop that shouldn’t be there.
7. If you do have any type of fire while cooking, make sure to call your local fire department. After a material has been on fire the objects stay very hot for a long time. Sometimes the fire can restart. The fire department can ensure that the items are cool enough that the fire won’t restart.

We hope you remember these tips all year long! Hope you have a safe and happy holiday with your friends and family!