Kitchen Fires

"The diner is everybody’s kitchen." - Richard Gutman

While I love eating at diners, with the currently financial crisis, I'll be eating more meals at home to save money. Yet as noted yesterday, cooking fires in the kitchen are the number one cause of home fires. So if I'm not careful I could save the cost of a meal out and lose my home in exchange.

A common mistake is to forget you have a pot on the stove. In college I fell asleep while cooking and woke up later to find the bottom of the pot had melted, the metal liquefied around the electric burner. Another time while living in a college apartment complex I woke up smelling smoke and called the fire department. We evacuated and the firemen searched the apartments before finding a pot on a stove downstairs which was burning.

Here are some recommendations from the National Wellness Institute for safe cooking:

• Keep combustible items, such as rags, potholders, curtains and bags, away from cooking surfaces.
  [I make it a habit NEVER to put anything that can burn on the stove top regardless of whether the burner is on or off.]
• Never leave food cooking unattended on the stove top or in the oven
• Never cook if you are drowsy or feel the effects of alcohol, medication, or other drugs.
• Roll up your sleeves and don’t cook while wear loose-fitting clothing. If your clothes catch on fire, stop, drop and roll until the fire is out.
• Clean cooking equipment often to remove grease that could catch on fire.
• Keep children and pets away from cooking areas. Create a three-foot “kid-free zone” around the stove.

Bottom Line

It is so very easy to get distracted while cooking. Perhaps the phone rings or there is someone at the door. Perhaps you're cooking and watching TV or a movie or on the Internet. If your food does catch on fire here is what you do:

1. Use your kitchen fire extinguisher (you have one right?)

2. Don't throw water on the fire. Water and grease don't mix so you'll just spread the fire.

3. Fires need air to burn so try to smother the fire: put a lid on the pot or cover it with some thing that won't burn.

4. If the fire is bigger than a basketball, get out of the house. Don't die trying to save your house.

5. Beware of fumes if you are fighting the fire. Most often it is smoke, not flame, that kills. The smoke can knock you unconscious and you'll die from asphyxiation (and then burn).