Be prepared, attentive to prevent Thanksgiving cooking fires

The turkey’s all prepped for the oven or the fryer. The potatoes are peeled, chopped and ready to boil. The slow cooker stands by to keep side dishes warm. You’re all set to start cooking. And you have a fire extinguisher at hand and an understanding of what to do in the event of a fire. Right?

The Fourth of July is by far the busiest day of the year for firefighters, says Modesto Fire Marshal Mike Payton, but national data show that Thanksgiving leads for home cooking fires. It makes complete sense, Payton said: The more cooking being done across the county, the more incidents of fire.

It’s a busy day for home cooks, and distraction is a leading cause of trouble, the marshal said. “Leaving stuff on the stove, getting busy doing other things. Also this time of year, it’s deep frying, and people misuse those. They overfill them, and then when they put the turkey in, the oil overflows. Burns, lots of burns, and they can be pretty severe. ... They’ll panic and drop it and it splashes.”

According to a U.S. Fire Administration data snapshot from 2011-13, an estimated 2,100 residential fires were reported across the nation on each Thanksgiving Day, causing about 10 deaths, 50 injuries and $28 million in property loss.

The average number of reported home fires on Thanksgiving was 2.1 times the average number on all other days, the USFA reported, and cooking was the leading cause, at 72 percent.

Fortunately, the damages, injuries and deaths from the cooking fires are much lower than on non-Thanksgiving residential fires.

“Most are things people put out themselves,” Payton said. “The problem is when they continue to try to put it out themselves when it’s getting away from them. It grows rapidly.”

The most important thing to have handy is a standard fire extinguisher that covers type A, B and C fires, the marshal said. Type A fires involve wood and other combustible materials like trash; type B fires are fueled by liquids like gas and grease, and type C is electrical, he said.

The most important thing to do is call 911, Payton said. And while trying to put out a kitchen fire, “do not use water on oil or grease; that’s the important thing. Water just spreads the fire out.” If you don’t have an extinguisher, “you can throw flour on a grease fire – that works well, too.”

As for preventing a kitchen fire, it all boils down to attentiveness and care, Payton said. “Keep little kids from playing around in there, and be attentive – don’t run to the store without having someone there to watch it.” Unattended cooking equipment is responsible for 34 percent of Thanksgiving cooking fires.

And while most attention to holiday drinking is the warning not to drive under the influence, Payton says the same rule should be applied in the kitchen. “Have a designated cook,” he advised.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Be prepared, attentive to prevent Thanksgiving cooking fires."