Kitchen Safety Tips for the Holidays
Holidays are a time of year to celebrate with family, and enjoy delicious food! The holiday season tends to be the busiest in the kitchen. Because Thanksgiving is the biggest cooking day of the year in the United States, it is also the day with the most cases of kitchen fires. According to the NFPA, Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires, followed by Christmas Day. We want to make sure that you are well equipped to prevent a kitchen fire this holiday season, so you can focus on your family, not a fire. Follow along for holiday kitchen safety tips by the expert fire and smoke remediation team at Soil-Away.
Test Smoke Detectors
Before you begin your day of holiday cooking, make sure that you test your smoke detectors to ensure they are working properly and the batteries have been replaced recently. Though they cannot prevent a fire, it is always wise to have reliable detection.
Buy a Fire Extinguisher
When fires happen, all common sense tends to escape our minds. You see a fire, you panic, and you completely forget what to do about it. Having a fire extinguisher handy ensures that you will be able to quickly stop a small fire from escalating and will not be running around to fill up bowls of water from your sink to try to put out the fire. Make sure the fire extinguisher is properly rated for kitchen usage.
Appropriate Cooking Wear
If you are the chef for the holiday season, make sure you are dressed appropriately to avoid a potential disaster. Avoid loose clothes that hang from your body. These clothes can easily get caught on handles and utensils and drape over a flame, which you may not even notice. If you have long hair, be sure to put it up and away from the heat and open flames on your stove. Wearing appropriate attire while cooking is an effortless step to prevent a kitchen disaster this holiday season.
Stay Put
It is so easy to get distracted and sidetracked with talking to family and enjoying the Thanksgiving parade on TV. However, it is important that you do not leave the kitchen while you have things cooking. Do not leave your turkey in the oven home alone, and always be sure to keep a constant eye on everything on the stove. Bring some family into the kitchen with you to enjoy company while staying safe!
Contact Soil-Away
The fire and smoke remediation team at Soil-Away are no strangers to holiday kitchen disasters. It, unfortunately, is more common than we would like it to be. For more information regarding keeping your home and family safe from kitchen tragedy this holiday season, give us a call today!
