The kitchen is the heart of the home, especially at Thanksgiving. From testing family recipes to decorating cakes and cookies, everyone enjoys being part of the preparations. Kids especially love to be involved in holiday preparations. However, safety in the kitchen is important, especially on Thanksgiving Day when there is a lot of activity and people at home.
Thanksgiving is the leading day of the year for home fires involving cooking equipment. The average number of reported home fires in the United States on Thanksgiving Day is more than double the average number of home fires on all other days. According to the National Fire Protection Association and the United States Fire Administration, Thanksgiving Day fires in residential buildings occurred most frequently from noon to 3 p.m., when many people most likely were preparing Thanksgiving dinner. These fires then declined throughout the evening.
As you start preparing your holiday schedule and organizing that large family feast, remember to play it safe! E.S.C.A.P.E. Fire Safety offers a few simple tips so you can enjoy time with your loved ones and keep yourself and your family safer from fire.
- Stay in the kitchen when you are cooking on the stovetop or cooking your turkey so you can keep an eye on the food and check on it frequently.
- Keep kids away from the stove. Maintain a three-foot kid free zone away from things that are hot and can burn (the stove, oven, microwave, or food).
- Make sure kids stay away from hot food and liquids. The steam or splash from vegetables, gravy, or coffee could cause serious burns.
- Have activities that keep kids out of the kitchen during this busy time. Games, puzzles, or books can keep them busy. Kids can get involved in Thanksgiving preparations with recipes that can be done outside the kitchen.
- Be on alert! If you are sleepy or have consumed alcohol, don’t use the oven or stovetop.
- Keep the floor clear so you don’t trip over kids, toys, pets, pocketbooks, or bags.
- Keep knives, utility lighters, and matches out of the reach of children. Place these tools up high in a locked cabinet.
- Never leave children or pets alone in a room with a lit candle. When you leave the room, extinguish the candle.
- Make sure your smoke alarms are working and are located on every level of your home. Test them by pushing the test button, replace batteries annually and replace alarms every 10 years.
- Never place smoke alarms in the kitchen or immediately outside the bathroom where cooking odors or steam from the shower can cause nuisance activations.
- Keep exits clear and accessible. In case of a fire, everyone in the home needs immediate access to the closest exit leading outside.
If your family needs a new smoke alarm and you are unable to obtain one, contact your local fire department or e-mail [email protected] to learn about the Operation Save A Life smoke alarm installation program close to Where You Live!
Sunday, November 1, is the time to move the clocks one hour back. It’s also a good time every year to change your smoke and carbon monoxide alarm batteries.
The National Fire Protection Association reports 71% of smoke alarms which failed to operate had missing, disconnected or dead batteries, making it important to take this time each year to check your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
Working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms double the chance of a family surviving a home fire and/or an unsafe carbon monoxide level.
Use this checklist to find out if you are taking the right steps to protect your family:
- Count Your Smoke Alarms – Be sure there is at least one smoke alarm less than 10 years old installed on every level of your home, including one in every bedroom and outside each sleeping area.
- Change Your Smoke Alarm and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Batteries – Fire experts nationwide encourage people to change their smoke and carbon monoxide alarm batteries at least once a year. An easy way to remember to do so is to change the battery when you move the clock back to standard time November 1st.
- Check Your Smoke Alarm and Carbon Monoxide Alarm – After inserting a fresh battery in each smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, push the safety test button to make sure the alarms are in proper-working condition. Conduct this test monthly. Never disconnect your smoke alarm battery! Remember that a “chirping” alarm is a signal it needs a fresh battery.
- Clear Your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms – Ensure your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms’ sensitivity by cleaning them each month of dust and cobwebs.
- Replace Your Smoke Alarms – The United States Fire Administration recommends replacing smoke alarms every 10 years and having a combination of both ionization and photo electric smoke alarms to keep you alert to all types of home fires.
- Change Your Flashlight Batteries – Keep flashlights with fresh batteries at your bedside for help in finding the way out and signaling for help in the event of a fire.
- Get the Whole Family Involved – Once smoke and carbon monoxide alarms have fresh batteries installed, you should make sure family members, children in particular, know what the alarms sound like and what to do should they go off…Get Out and Stay Out and then call 911 from a safe meeting place once outside!
- If you need a free smoke and/or carbon monoxide alarm, contact your local fire department or email WOTV’s Operation Save A Life program at [email protected].
Here is a complete list of West Michigan smoke alarm installation programs.
Sometimes saving a life can be that simple – Change Your Clock Change Your Battery® Where You Live!
Make trick-or-treating safe for your little monsters with a few easy safety tips!
Children dressed in costumes excitedly running door to door to trick-or-treat, festive decorations like glowing jack-o-lanterns, paper ghosts and dried cornstalks adorning front porches – these are some of the classic hallmarks of Halloween that make this time of year special for kids and adults alike.
Unfortunately, these Halloween symbols and activities can also present lurking fire risks that have the potential to become truly scary. But by planning ahead, you can help make this Halloween a fire-safe one.
Halloween by the numbers from the United States Fire Administration:
For each year from 2011 to 2013, an estimated 10,300 fires were reported to fire departments in the United States over a three-day period around Halloween and caused an estimated 25 deaths, 125 injuries, and $83 million in property loss.
According to the National Fire Incident Reporting System, Halloween fires occurred most frequently in the late afternoon and early evening hours, peaking during the dinner hours from 5 to 7 p.m. Fires then declined, reaching the lowest point during the early morning hours of 4 to 7 a.m.
The leading causes of Halloween residential fires were cooking (44%), heating (15%), other unintentional careless actions (7%), open flame (6%), electrical malfunction (6%), and intentional actions (5%).
- The National Fire Protection Association reports decorations were the item first ignited in an estimated average of 900 home structure fires per year.
- Nearly half of decoration fires in homes occurred because the decorations were too close to a heat source.
- These fires caused an estimated average of one civilian death, 41 civilian injuries and $13 million in direct property damage throughout the United States per year.
- Forty-one percent of these incidents were started by candles; one-fifth begin in the living room, family room or den.
Let’s help our communities be safer during Halloween by sharing a few fire safety tips with everyone:
- When choosing a costume, stay away from long, trailing fabric. If your child is wearing a mask, make sure the eye holes are large enough so they can see out.
- Provide children with flashlights to carry for lighting or glow sticks as part of their costume.
- Dried flowers, cornstalks and crepe paper catch fire easily. Keep all decorations away from open flames such as candles and other heat sources like light bulbs and heaters.
- Use a battery-operated flameless candle or glow-stick in jack-o-lanterns. If you use a real candle, use extreme caution. Make sure children are supervised at all times when candles are lit. When lighting candles inside jack-o-lanterns, use long, fireplace-style matches or a utility lighter. Be sure to place lit pumpkins well away from anything that can burn and far enough out of way of trick-or-treaters, doorsteps, walkways and yards.
- Remember to keep exits clear of decorations, so nothing blocks escape routes.
- Make sure all smoke alarms in the home are working.
- Tell children to stay away from open flames including jack-o-lanterns with candles in them. Be sure they know how to stop, drop and roll if their clothing catches fire. (Have them practice , stopping immediately, dropping to the ground, covering their face with hands, and rolling over and over to put the flames out.)
For more information about Halloween fires and fire safety, check out the U.S. Fire Administration’s website.
By taking simple fire safety precautions like keeping decorations far away from open flames and using battery-operated candles or glow-sticks in jack-o-lanterns, you can help ensure Halloween remains festive and fun close to Where You Live!
Join the E.S.C.A.P.E. Fire Safety Team and Jake the Fire Safety Dog this Saturday at Lowe’s in Portage for the 12th Annual Family Fire Safety Day from 10am – 2pm. Listen to this morning’s interview with WKZO’s Jim McKinney and E.S.C.A.P.E.’s founder Firefighter Michael McLeieer.
E.S.C.A.P.E.’s founder Firefighter Michael McLeieer stopped in to the WVFM 106.5 studio this morning to preview Saturday’s Family Fire Safety Day event at Lowe’s in Portage.