Avoiding Fire Hazards in the Kitchen

3/12/2020 (Permalink)

Cooking fires are rated as the No. 1 cause of home fires and injuries.

Has your kitchen been designated as a place for family and friends to gather and spend quality time together as, perhaps, a cozy comfort food meal is cooking? Well, the kitchen is also a space where many home fires occur.

Cooking fires are the No. 1 cause of home fires and injuries with the leading cause of these kitchen fires being unattended cooking.

State Farm paid out a whopping $130 million for homeowners insurance claims related to grease and other cooking fires in just 2017 alone. According to the insurance company, these are the worst states for kitchen fires:

• North Carolina
• Texas
• Pennsylvania
• California
• Ohio
• Illinois
• Maryland
• New York
• Alabama
• Georgia

<h4fire-safety-tips">Kitchen Fire Safety Tips

Staying in the kitchen while cooking is not the only fire safety tip you should be following. Here are some other helpful tips to observe while cooking:

1. Are you wearing loose-fitting clothing or long sleeves? They could catch on fire if you aren’t careful while cooking over the stove. It’s best to wear short or close-fitted sleeve shirts and make sure any baggy shirts are tucked in or tied back.

2. Do you keep flammable items away from the stovetop? Make sure kitchen towels, oven mitts, appliance cords or even curtains aren’t too close to the stovetop when cooking. Ideally, anything flammable should be moved away from the stovetop.

3. Do you have a fire extinguisher readily accessible to the kitchen? Hopefully you have at least one fire extinguisher located in your home, ideally one that is near your kitchen. Make sure you know how to properly use the extinguisher, just in case it is ever needed.

4. How are you disposing of your hot grease? Even if the grease is not on fire, it could be hot enough to cause something in the trash to catch fire. You should let the grease cool a bit and then dispose of it in an old coffee can. Also, know the smoke points of the oils you cook with. Be sure to never subject a low-smoke point oil to high heat when cooking, as it could catch fire.

5. Have you created a fire escape plan for an emergency? No one wants something bad to happen, but it’s better to be safe rather than sorry if an emergency were to occur. Review exit routes and designated meeting points with your family, making sure that everyone knows what to do.

Fire safety in the kitchen is an absolute necessity, as it can help prevent dangerous and destructive cooking fires. If your home has experienced damage from a cooking fire, know that SERVPRO of Clair County is here to make it “Like it never even happened.”