Cooking Fires

Cooking is often a relaxing and fun task that brings people together, but cooking is also the number one cause of home fires and home injuries. View this short video on cooking safety to help prevent a cooking fire incident in your home.

Tips to Avoid Cooking Fires

• Set a timer to remind you that you are cooking.
• Never leave items on the stove top or in the oven unattended.
• Make sure the stove top is clear of debris (oven mitts, paperwork, food packaging, utensils, etc).
• Make sure the handles of your pans do not hang over the edge of the stove top; this helps prevent you from accidentally knocking the pan onto the floor.
• Be mindful of what pans you are using - do not use a small pan if the food will rise or expand over the sides.

The Dangers of Cooking Oil Fires

It's that time of year when we tend to cook and bake more than any other time of the year. With the popularity of hot oil turkey fryers, this might be a good time to cover the dangers of a hot oil fire.

If you ever have any type of cooking oil fire, never try to extinguish the fire with water! When water is added to hot oil, the water immediately turns to steam, which results in a literal steam explosion turning a small contained fire into a huge hot oil fireball. If you are close enough to throw water on the fire, you will likely be part of that fireball.

How to Extinguish a Cooking Oil Fire

First, turn off the heat source if you are able to safely do so. If you are cooking on the stove top, smother the flames by sliding a lid over the pan or by covering the container with a wet towel. For an oven fire, turn off the heat source and keep the door closed.

If you do not feel that you can safely extinguish the small cooking oil fire by yourself, get outside immediately and call 911.