How to prevent a holiday fire from starting
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Imagine you’re cooking Thanksgiving dinner and rushing to the store to grab last-minute items but forget to turn off the stove. It’s simple mistakes that can lead to a dangerous holiday fire.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, cooking mishaps cause reported home structure fires and injuries. And it’s the second leading cause of fire deaths and property damage overall. And with people spending more time in their kitchens, cooking for family and friends, the holidays can be hazardous. An estimated 1,400 home cooking fires were reported to the U.S. fire department on Thanksgiving Day in 2019.
“Around this time, we get a couple of calls of burnt food or smoked up apartment or house where somebody left something unattended on the stove or in the oven. They thought they were going to run to the store real quick and maybe forgot it was there and came back and found that it was a little overdone,” said Operations Division Chief Brian Povandra for The Rapid City Fire Department.
Fire experts shared a few safety tips for when you step into the kitchen this Thanksgiving season:
- Be attentive while food is cooking.
- Leave your home when there’s a fire.
- Don’t try to handle a fire by yourself.
- If you’re frying a turkey, do it somewhere far away from your home.
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