The State Fire Marshal Offers Safe Cooking ‘Recipes’ To Help Protect Marylanders
Year after year, too many homes are damaged and residents injured as a result of one of Marylanders most essential and pleasurable activities: Cooking. The pursuit of a home-cooked meal remains a leading cause of home fires in Maryland and nationwide, according to State Fire Marshal William E. Barnard. “Cooking fires remain one of the most difficult issues we face. We must remain vigilant in our efforts to practice fire safe behavior to protect ourselves from the devastating effects of fire.” said the State Fire Marshal.
Distractions and forgetfulness are the key ingredients to cooking fires in the home. In most cases, the cook goes to another room because of: monitoring children, phone calls, texting, social media activities, visitors, television or any other number of interruptions, and forgets about the food on the stove or in the oven. This then leads to potential injuries from fighting a cooking fire, the destruction of the kitchen area or even the loss of your home.
If the fire is small and contained to the cookware; place a lid on it to smother the fire, turn off the heat source and allow it to cool completely before trying to remove it. Never use water on a grease fire, water can cause the fire to spread. If the fire is in the oven or other self contained appliance; close the door, turn off the heat source and allow it to cool prior to removal.
When in doubt, have everyone leave the house immediately, close the door to the house, and then call 911.
The State Fire Marshal offers these ‘safety recipes’ during cooking:
- Never leave cooking food unattended.
- Roll up sleeves and control loose clothing. Loose clothing can catch on fire and/or possibly cause cookware to tip over.
- Establish a three foot, “no kids and pets zone” around the stove.
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