Cooking is familiar and frequent, a daily activity and even a pleasure for many. Maybe that’s why we don’t fully grasp its danger. “To be blunt, we ‘play with fire’ and flammable items every day in our homes: it’s called the cooking process,” says Chris Thomas, a Technical Trainer at Paul Davis Restoration of North Florida. “But our teams see the terrible damage that happens when home chefs don’t respect its hazards.”
Cooking is the leading cause of home fires and injuries in the U.S., accounting for roughly half of all reported home fires. It’s also the second leading cause of home fire deaths. Most cooking fires happen during dinner hours (about 4–8 p.m.), when many people are preparing meals. How can you reduce the chances of a kitchen conflagration in your own home? Apply 12 smart precautions:
- Don’t leave the kitchen while cooking. Unattended or distracted cooking is a leading cause of kitchen fires. Even a minute, allows pots to boil over and ingredients to burn.
- Monitor the heat of cooking food. If cooking food smokes, fire risks are high: decrease the heat immediately. Oil and grease, for instance, can ignite explosively when they reach high temperatures.
- Keep appliances tidy. Keep ovens, grills and fryers free of residue and debris, which can flare up unexpectedly. Toaster ovens are particularly risky: they are often located under cabinets, not monitored closely and accumulate crumbs.
- Maintain cooking devices. Ranges, stovetops, toasters and grills don’t last forever. Heat, vibration, repeated cooling cycles, complex electronics and other factors degrade devices over time. Maintain or replace them on schedule.
- Keep fire safety items handy. Station fire extinguishers within arm’s reach. In a pinch, baking soda quenches a small blaze. A pot lid or baking sheet close at hand quickly smothers flames, too.
- Maintain fire safety devices. Check the expiration date – yes, they don’t last forever – on fire extinguishers to ensure they will function when needed.
- Maintain smoke alarms with continuous power, preferably hard-wired with battery back-up. Resist the urge to disconnect smoke alarms that alert unexpectedly: many people forget to reconnect them later.
- Ensure electrical safety. Newer, bigger or more powerful appliances may consume more electricity. Consult an electrician to ensure that wires, outlets and connections are rated appropriately; call promptly if circuit breakers trip.
- Keep combustible items far away from heat. Keep potholders, napkins, towels and curtains out of harm’s way. Ditch loose, flowing, flammable garments that may contact hot surfaces or open flames and secure long hair.
- Exclude children and pets from cooking areas. Kids and pets not only distract the chef, they also create fire hazards by getting too close to cooktops, dislodging pots and turning dials.
- Plan escape routes. Know how you will escape from a kitchen fire and communicate this information to occupants.
- Know when to call for help. If you can’t extinguish flames within 30 seconds, get everybody outside and call for help. Kitchen fires can become uncontrollable rapidly.
“And finally, please don’t use water to extinguish a grease fire,” Thomas urges. “Putting water on a grease fire causes an immediate, violent explosion of fire and splattering oil. Because water is denser than oil, it sinks to the bottom, instantly vaporizes into steam, and expands 1,700 times, launching burning grease out of the pan in a fireball.”
If your property experiences fire damage, trust the company that employs restoration experts. Visit www.pauldavis.com.
