Thanksgiving Cooking Safety Tips
For many, Thanksgiving is the best time of year to enjoy a hearty meal with the company of friends and family. It should be a joyful time spent cooking, decorating, and eating before hitting the stores for Black Friday. But to some families’ horrific experiences, turkey fryer fires, oven fires, and other holiday hazards turn this joyful holiday into a disaster. In fact, Thanksgiving is the most common time for home cooking fires, just ahead of Christmas and Christmas Eve.
But you can prevent your home and family from becoming a part of this statistic by following these Thanksgiving and turkey fire safety tips. This way you can spend the holidays with your loved ones and not have to worry about potential cooking fires.
Holiday Cooking Fire Disasters
If your family has already experienced a holiday fire, it doesn’t have to be the end for your home and furnishings. While it can seem like the disaster has ruined everything, there is still some hope for your building structure. Don’t hesitate to call your local RestorationMaster for emergency fire damage restoration services.
For all surfaces covered in soot or smoke, RestorationMaster’s technicians will know exactly how to restore them to their original conditions. By using commercial products and equipment, they will be able to rebuild the home while removing all byproducts to return the property to its original condition. No matter how far the fire had spread or if it happened on Thanksgiving, you can depend on these professionals to be there for you during a property emergency.
Thanksgiving Fire Safety Tips
- Ensure all smoke alarms are working. It is crucial to notice the fire as soon as it starts to put it out as soon as possible.
- Never leave the stove or oven unattended. Especially with young children or pets, make sure to watch and keep them out of the kitchen.
- Roll up sleeves before turning on the burner. Low hanging clothing can easily catch fire and cause severe burns.
- Set up cooking timers. Doing this is more beneficial than just knowing when to pull the food out of the oven. Overcooking can also lead to oven fires.
- Keep flammable materials away from burners. This includes towels, paper towels, oven mitts, food wrappers, pot holders, pizza boxes, and other paper, plastic, and fabric materials.
- Turn off appliances when done cooking. Forgetting to turn off the stove or oven is a common mistake and has been known to cause a number of cooking fires.
- Remove household objects from the floor. This will prevent dangerous accidents when cooking in the kitchen, especially with kids and pets.
- Keep matches away from children. Teach them to bring it straight to you or another adult if they do find one.
- Pick up all electric cords. Especially in the kitchen, pick up the cords from plate warmers, mixers, toasters, coffee makers, electric knives, and other appliances and keep them out of their reach.
- Blow out all candles. As soon as everyone is done eating, blow out all of the candles on the table, but don’t forget others in the living room, kitchen, and other common areas.
- Store a fire extinguisher. In the event of a small kitchen fire, you can stop it before it spreads by keeping a small fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Make sure that it is easily accessible and everyone knows where it is.
- Be prepared in case of an emergency. Always keep the phone numbers of emergency services, such as the fire department, hospital, and disaster restoration service. You will save a lot of time just by calling the direct line instead of searching for it on your phone.
Turkey Fire Prevention
A fried turkey can provide extra flavor during a Thanksgiving meal, but they are also known as one of the leading causes of Thanksgiving fires. Just remember to follow these tips before firing up the fryer.
- Keep the fryer outdoors. Because it is messy, boiling grease can splatter everywhere and ruin some furnishings.
- Use an approved fryer. These have four legs, a built-in thermostat, and are stable. You should be easily able to measure the oil’s temperature while cooking it to prevent a fire.
- Follow all instructions. Even before turning the fryer on, make sure to read all of the instructions. Be careful when choosing the right size, how to cook the turkey, and what kind of oil to use with it.
- Thaw and dry out the turkey. Remove the bag of gizzards and don’t stuff the bird before putting it in the fryer.
- Never leave the turkey fryer unattended. As soon as you turn the fryer on, never leave it alone. Also remember to use gloves instead of oven mitts; the gloves have more insulation.
- Be careful of splashing oil. Make sure that the fryer is moved away from all combustible materials, including your property, grass, furnishings, etc.. Make sure that all bare skin is covered to prevent serious burns.
Experiencing Holiday Fires
For many, the holidays are the best time of the year. But they can also be one of the most dangerous as more heat-related appliances are being used. During this time, fires from stoves, ovens, furnaces, turkey fryers, candles, cords, and wiring can be the culprits of holiday disasters. If you or a loved one have already experienced a holiday fire, don’t hesitate to reach out to an emergency fire damage restoration service, such as that of RestorationMaster’s.
Their technicians will not only be able to remove oily, thick residue from all building materials and furnishings, they are available 24/7 to arrive before time allows the damage to become permanent. They will also be able to rebuild the home using reconstruction services, a much-needed service in the event of critical damage. Within a timely manner, you can expect your home to be returned to its original condition without causing a devastating interruption to your holiday celebration.