Avoiding Kitchen Fires in Your Home

2/8/2022 (Permalink)

Recognizing the most common causes of home fires in the kitchen is a critical step to practicing fire safety.

The kitchen is often the central location in a home. A place to congregate, a place to eat, and a place to enjoy family and friends, the kitchen is one of the most lively parts of any house. Unfortunately, the kitchen is also the most common place for a home fire to start. Cooking presents a lot of potential hazards, most notably being the possibility of a fire. In fact, about half of all home fires begin in the kitchen, nearly all of which are sparked by a cooking incident. With 350,000 home fires occurring each year in the U.S., the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimates about $7.2 billion of property damage directly linked to home fires.

While no one anticipates a kitchen fire happening in their own home, taking extra precautions is imperative to keeping your loved ones safe. Understanding the most common causes of home fires in the kitchen is the best way to proactively avoid them from occurring in the first place. Keep the following tips in mind to avoid kitchen fires in your home:

• Never leave food unattended on the stove top
• Inspect your appliances every 10 years and ensure there are no issues
• Repair any broken appliances right away
• Avoid cooking at extremely high temperatures, even when in a rush
• Make sure that no flammable objects are being stored in the kitchen
• Limit frying oil to just cover the bottom of the pan, as oil can spread flames extremely fast
• Exercise extra caution on holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter when more cooking takes place

Recognizing the most common causes of home fires in the kitchen is a critical step to practicing fire safety. Implementing the above safety tips will prove to be instrumental in keeping your loved ones safe from fires in the kitchen.