Thanksgiving Safety Tips

2/7/2020 (Permalink)

Most home fires occur on Thanksgiving.

It’s not surprising why.  This is one of the few days of the year when we come together and meet in the kitchen.  It’s not really Thanksgiving until you have two types of potato dishes and three desserts! 

With so much activity happening in the kitchen, accidents are bound to happen.  

The three most common causes of home fires for Thanksgiving are:

Oven Fires

Oven fires tend to happen because of a burning piece of food.  Keep these safety tips in mind if this happens to you.

• Don’t overfill dishes.  When cooking foods that expand in the oven, like a cake, be careful not to fill the dish to the bin with batter.  It may run over and catch fire.
• Clean your oven of scraps.  Scraps from other meals can also catch fire or create an unpleasant smoke.

• Turn on a timer on your phone.  The holidays are busy times and there are plenty of ways to distract ourselves these days.  Put on a timer and let that remind you to come back for your delicious meal.

• We won’t advise you to not use your oven’s self cleaning feature, but we will warn you that many oven fires we’ve been called out to have been a result of this feature being turned on.

How to Put Out an Oven Fire

• Leave the door closed.  Opening the door and allowing more oxygen in will just fuel the fire.

• Turn off the oven.  You may choose to make sure the fire goes out on its own, but if there’s any doubt, just call 911 and follow the dispatcher’s instructions.

Candle Fires

Candles set a great ambiance and many have the added benefit of smelling great.  We mostly see fire damages caused by candles when people leave them unsupervised and the candle catches something small on fire.  The damage to the room may not be significant, but the resulting fire smoke odor tends to reach everywhere in the house.

• Burn candles in a well ventilated room.  The ventilation lets the billowed smoke spread.  Under ventilated rooms tend to smoke up, which makes it hard to see and get some fresh air.  

• Stay in the room and keep an eye on the candle.  If anything happens, you want to be there to put an immediate stop to it.

• Keep candles away from flammable objects.  This includes things like paper and drapes.  Keep the candle at least 3 feet away.

• Keep burning candles away from children and pets.

• Use a candle holder.  A candle holder will catch any melting wax and prevent it from spilling onto other surfaces.  Since many people use a cloth tablecloth to line their tables, this is especially important so the cloth doesn’t have a chance to catch fire.

• Put the candle holder on a stable platform.  This will help the candle from tipping and dripping wax away from its holder.

• Keep candles away from each other.

Turkey Fryer Fire

Frying a turkey is fast, easy, and most importantly--delicious.  The oil creates a crispy exterior while keeping the meat moist.

Whichever way you like your turkey cooked, please keep safety as your top priority.  We often see one of these rules violated when we get called to clean up after garage fires or other outdoor portions of the home affected after a grass fire spread.

• Reduce the chance of it tipping over.  Turkey fryers can easily tip over.  Use them on a flat surface.
• Don’t overfill the fryer.  An overfilled cooking pot will cause cooking oil to spill when the turkey is put in.  Read your fryer’s safety manual to learn exactly how big a turkey can fit inside. Also look for different colored marks on the fryer itself that tells you where to fill up the oil to.
• Make sure the entire turkey is defrosted.  Have you ever put a bit of oil into a pan on a stove and accidentally got a drop of water in it?  Then you know that the hot oil jumps back at you. Water and oil do not mix! The same thing happens when water and the hot oil in a turkey fryer mix.  A partially frozen turkey (partially frozen = ice) will cause cooking oil to splatter when put in the pot. These splatters of hot oil jump out and can land on something that will burn, like grass.  Make sure your turkey is completely thawed and patted dry before inserting it into the oil.
• Clean up oil spills.  Even a small amount of cooking oil spilling on a hot burner can cause a large fire.
• How hot is the oil?  Use a fryer with temperature controls to prevent overheating the oil.  If one isn’t available, many retail stores readily sell oil temperature gauges.
• Use the fryer outdoors.  Turkey fryers should always be used outdoors a safe distance away from buildings or other flammable materials.

Every year, SERVPRO of Texarkana responds to calls from customers whose homes have suffered smoke damage. This holiday season, keep the following safety tips in mind to keep your family and home safe from fire:

From our family to yours, we wish you a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!