Be Safe Cooking For Thanksgiving

Cooking is the leading cause of home fires throughout the United States, and Thanksgiving sees more such fires than any other day of the year.

According to statistics provided by the National Fire Protection Association, there were 1,550 home fires across the country on Thanksgiving in 2013, a full 230 percent above normal.

We’re sharing the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY) cooking tips and guidance in order to ensure a safe and happy holiday.

The most common factors in home cooking fires and ways to avoid them:

• Unattended Cooking – the leading cause of fires in the kitchen. 

• Stay in the kitchen while you are frying, grilling, or broiling food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short time, turn off the stove. If you are simmering, baking, roasting, or boiling food, check it regularly. Remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind yourself that you are cooking, as guests, phones, children, pets and other activity can easily distract a cook.

• Objects near the cooking catching fire: Clothing ignitions lead to approximately 16% of home cooking fire deaths. It is important to wear short, close-fitting, or tightly rolled sleeves as loose clothing can dangle onto stove burners or gas flames and catch fire. Keep the cooking area clean and combustible materials away from your stove top: built-up grease as well as oven mitts, food packaging, wooden utensils, towels, curtains and other materials on or near the stove can catch fire.
Cooking equipment unintentionally turned on or not turned off. Be on alert! If you are sleepy or have consumed alcohol don’t use the stove or stovetop.

• Deep-frying turkeys: Turkey fryers that immerse the turkey in cooking oil at high temperatures pose a significant danger of hot oil being released or spilled during cooking, leading to devastating burns, other injuries and property destruction.

• Hot cooking oil exposed to water or outdoor elements: If rain or snow strikes hot cooking oil in propane-fired turkey fryers designed for outdoor use, the result can be a splattering of the hot oil or a conversion of the precipitation to steam, which can lead to burns. Frozen and defrosting turkeys also create the risk of contact between water and hot cooking oil, which can cause severe scalding or other serious injury.
Never fry a frozen turkey.

If you do have a cooking fire: Just get out and stay out! 

- When you leave, close the door behind you to help contain the fire.
- Call 911.
- For an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed.
- Do not use water to put out a grease fire.

We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you enjoy the holiday, friends and family while remaining safe.