Safety Tips: Prevent Kitchen Fires This Thanksgiving

Here’s how to protect yourself and your loved ones during this festive season and throughout the year.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is alerting consumers that the threat of fires in the kitchen triples on Thanksgiving Day. From 2009 through 2011, there was an average of about 1,300 cooking fires on Thanksgiving Day. This is more than three times the average daily rate from 2009 through 2011 of about 400 cooking fires a day.

When it comes to fires in the home, cooking fires are number one. They accounted for nearly 150,000 fires (more than 40 percent of all annual unintentional residential fires) each year from 2009 through 2011. Unattended cooking is the top cause of cooking fires. Cooking fires also caused the most home fire-related injuries, with an estimated annual average of nearly 27 percent, or 3,450 injuries yearly.

Overall, CPSC estimates an average of 362,300 unintentional residential fires, 2,260 deaths, 12,820 injuries, and nearly $7 billion in property damage attended by the fire service occurring each year between 2009 and 2011.

Tips for Safe Cooking

Never Leave Your Pan If you are frying, grilling, or broiling food, stay in the kitchen, and don’t leave your cooking unattended…be sure to stand by your pan! Follow this advice to avoid disaster on Thanksgiving and throughout the year.

Don’t Wearing Loose-Fitting Clothing To stay safe in the kitchen, avoid wearing loose-fitting clothing with long sleeves near ranges or ovens.

Keep Kids Away from Stove Watch children closely, so they don’t come into contact with cooking food or hot stovetops. Turn pan handles toward the back of the stove to prevent kids and others from spilling a pan’s scalding contents onto themselves.

Cover a Pan with a Lid to smother the flames. Never pour water or flour on a fire.

Keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen.

In the event of a fire, Call 911.