Kitchen Fires And How To Prevent Them
Kitchen fires while cooking is the most common cause of insurance claims when it comes to home fires. Anything from a grease fire, pans left unattended, or a sudden wind igniting a paper towels . Even a small fire can cause lots of smoke damage and odor issues.
Caution Kitchen Fires:
- Never leave the stove unattended when something is cooking. Even to answer the door or phone things change quickly. If you need to attended to something else it’s good idea to turn everything off as a pr-caution.
- Watch your clothing especially long sleeves, aprons and shirts that can quickly ignite.
- Watch for items around the stove that could catch on fire including oven mitts, curtains, food packaging, paper towel, or cloth towels.
- It is always a good idea to use a timer just as a reminder that the oven is on.
- Make sure you have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, it can make all the difference between a slightly burnt pan or kitchen fire cleanup.
- If a fire does break out in a pot or frying pan just put the proper size lid over it to smother the fire. Do not use water or try to move the burning pan to to the sink you could easily spread the fire or risk a bad burn.
- Make sure your smoke detector is in good working order by using the test button and have your batteries replaced every 6 months.
- Keep younger children out of the kitchen especially away from the stove.
- Clean cooking surfaces on a regular basis to prevent grease buildup.
- Double check your kitchen before going to bed or going out to make sure everything is off.
- If you have a window open in the kitchen, keep an eye on any sudden breeze that could cause a fire to jump onto a nearby item and ignite.