How To Keep Your Kitchen Fire Safe

Did you know that more than 50% of fires in the home start in the kitchen? Therefore, it’s essential to be fire safe in this area of your home. From deep fat fryers to being distracted there are many reasons why a kitchen is a key place for fires to start. This blog will give your advice on how to keep your kitchen as fire safe as possible.

Frying Pans

When using a frying pan, it’s best to use the least amount of oil as possible and you should always be paying attention during cooking. However, if your pan catches fire the heat needs to be turned off immediately and the pan should be left where it is. You shouldn’t pour water onto it or use extinguishers as that could further spread the fire. Once the heat is off you should leave the room, close doors behind you, ensure everyone is outside and call for help.

Deep-Fat Frying

Deep-fat fryers can be dangerous, so it’s important to use a fryer that can’t overheat like one that is controlled by a thermostat. There are also a few rules to follow that will also make deep-fat frying safer. Firstly, if the oil is smoking you shouldn’t put food in the pan, and you should turn off the heat to allow it to cool down. As well as this, ensure the food you are putting in the oil is completely dry so the oil doesn’t spit. Whilst it does sound obvious you should never leave it unattended and the pan should not be more than one-third filled with oil.

Cooking Oil

Whenever you’re using oil or fat, you need to be careful as they can easily catch on fire, so as a rule of thumb, less is always more. Fats like butter have a low smoking point so will burn easily, whereas certain oils have high smoking points, always aim to use the correct oil or fat for what you’re doing.

Microwaves

Microwaves do catch on fire and if it does you should leave the room and close the door, then you should ensure everyone is out of the house and call 999. After a fire in your microwave, you should have it tested by an expert to ensure there isn’t further damage and you aren’t causing more risk by using it.

Alarms

It’s a great idea to have alarms in your kitchen to warn you if there is smoke or a fire, or even carbon monoxide, as many cookers that haven’t been installed properly or are having issues leak carbon monoxide, which is a dangerous and common poison found in houses.

Top Tips

To keep your kitchen fire safe you should keep things clean and tidy, ensuring that tea towels are not close to the cooker. You should also ensure your clothing are suitable for cooking, think long sleeves! Although it might seem obvious, you should never leave your cooking unattended and should ensure everything is always turned off completely once you’ve finished. Similarly, you need to ensure your electrical safety in the kitchen is a property; don’t overload sockets and have leads near open flames.

At Fire Stoppers, we can help ensure that your home is fire safe from testing your appliances to installing alarms and more, click here to learn more about our fire safety services.

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