Thanksgiving Fire Safety

The holiday season is upon us! As a leader in the fire safety field, we want to share a couple of links about home cooking safety at this time of year as families gather for their Thanksgiving meals.

According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), when it comes to home cooking fires, Thanksgiving Day is the big winner. The leading cause of these fires is unattended cooking, which is more common with extra guests in the home, preparations for the holiday crowd, and other distractions.

In 2015, fire departments in the United States responded to an estimated 1,760 home cooking fires on Thanksgiving Day!

What can you do to help prevent a fire this Thanksgiving?

The good news is there are plenty of simple steps you can take to curb the chance of a fire. We’ve previously shared Thanksgiving fire safety tips here on our blog, which include these time-tested caveats:

• Stay in the room you’re cooking in (whether it’s the kitchen or somewhere else that your deep fryer is operating).
• Keep your cooking surfaces clean.
• NEVER put a frozen turkey in a deep fryer
• Ensure that you have a working fire extinguisher in the event a fire starts.

The NFPA offers additional advice in their Thanksgiving fire safety tips video, where you can learn (among other things) that cooking fires are three times more likely on Thanksgiving. You can view the video here:

So, test those smoke alarms, lock up the matches so kids can’t get at them, check the fire extinguisher, and did we mention NEVER throwing a frozen turkey in a deep fryer? Some things are worth repeating…