Kitchen Fire Safety 101

Cooking fires are the leading cause of home fires in the United States, causing more than 480 deaths per year and causing more than 900 million in property damage. Grease fires are the main culprits of home fires and if left alone your entire kitchen could go up in a matter of minutes.

In a case of an emergency, would you know how to handle a grease fire?

Here are the do’s and don’ts

Do:

• Do use a dry chemical extinguisher (class ABC fires) which is design to put out a grease fire in seconds
• Do keep fire extinguisher readily accessible
• Do focus on putting the fire out at the base of the fire
• Do carefully put baking soda on the flames
• Do place a lid on the pan and turn off the heat
• Do leave the lid on, trying to remove the lid while still hot could restart the fire.

Don’t

• Don’t leave food cooking on an unattended stove
• Don’t disable a smoke alarm while cooking
• Don’t use water to put out the flames, water could cause the flames to double in size instantly
• Don’t throw on a wet towel.  This could cause grease to splatter causing more wide spread flames
• Don’t use a water base extinguisher this will only intensify the flames

Other key points:

• Trying to remove the pan from the heat could result in bodily harm
• Studies show that 42 percent of people who have died in cooking fires were asleep.
• Remember, if the fire has already spread beyond the cooking pan, leave immediately and call 911 from a neighbor’s house.