Thanksgiving Cooking Safety

Keeping fire safety top of mind is important, especially when there’s a lot of activity and people at home. As you start preparing your holiday schedule and organizing that large family feast, remember, by following a few simple safety tips you can enjoy time with your loved ones and keep yourself and your family safe.

Safety Tips:

1. Stay home and close to the kitchen while food is cooking. Most fires in the kitchen occur because food is left unattended. Obviously, you can’t stay in the kitchen the whole time the turkey is in the oven, but if you’ve got burners or the broiler going, you should be there.
2. Keep the range free of clutter. Don’t overload a range top with too many pots and pans. Thanksgiving is a great time to seek out recipes that can be prepared ahead of time. And turn the handles of pots and pans in, but away from hot burners.
3. Keep children and pets away from the cooking area. It’s best, if possible, to keep them out of the kitchen altogether while you’re cooking.
4. Use thick, dry, flame-resistant potholders when handling lids and pans. Not dish towels, not sweatshirt sleeves pulled down over your hand. When removing pot and pan lids, tilt them away from you to protect your face and hands from steam.
5. Be sure electric cords from any appliances are not dangling off the counter within easy reach of a child.
6. Never wear loose fitting clothing when cooking. Long, open sleeves could ignite and catch fire from a gas flame or a hot burner. Wear short, close fitting or tightly rolled sleeves when cooking. If you have long hair, be sure to tie it back.
7. Never disconnect the smoke detector while cooking. Remember that smoke detectors save lives.
8. Keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and know how to use it. Make sure the fire extinguisher is rated for grease fires and electrical fires and read the directions carefully.

And in the event of a fire:

9. With small fires, prevent flames from spreading. For a small range-top fire, turn off the burner, put on an oven mitt and smother the flames by carefully sliding a lid onto the pan. Leave the lid in place until the pot or pan is cooled. Never pour water on a grease fire. That can cause it to spread. And never carry the pan outside—you could spread flames throughout the house. If you have an oven fire, immediately turn off the heat and keep the oven door closed.
10. Call for help. If you can’t immediately extinguish the fire yourself, leave your home, call 9-1-1 and wait in a safe place until emergency personnel arrive.

Thanksgiving Fire Facts:

• Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires with more than three times the daily average for such incidents.
• Unattended cooking was by far the leading contributing factor in cooking fires and fire deaths.
• Cooking causes half (53%) of all reported home fires and nearly two of every five (38%) home fire injuries, and it is a leading cause of home fire deaths (18%).
• On Thanksgiving Day alone, an estimated 1,160 home cooking fires were reported to U.S fire departments in 2021, reflecting a 297 percent increase over the daily average.

Source: NFPA Research