Household cooking equipment accounts for over 40% of all fires involving home structures! There are on average 155,400 fires per year that involve cooking equipment. These fires have caused an average of 390 civilian deaths, 4800 civilian injuries and $771 million in direct property damage!!!
Don’t leave your kitchen (or whatever area your cooking equipment is located in) while cooking! The leading contributing factor to household fires, by far was unattended cooking. 58% of home fires were attributed to using the free standing range or cooktop. Ovens accounted for 16%, microwaves came in at 5%, portable cooking equipment or warming units were at 4% and grills, hibachi, and barbecues were responsible for only 2%.
Frying foods on the stove top is responsible for the majority of food related fires and using cooking oils increased these numbers significantly. Be careful when frying, especially if you are using cooking oil!
Call for help immediately. Don’t try to fight the fire yourself! Three out of every five cooking related fire injuries occurred when people tried to put the fire out by themselves. You can help contain the fire by closing the doors behind you when you leave the kitchen and the house.
If you see a fire starting in your oven, either turn it off by the control or flip the breaker. KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED!! Never open the oven door if you see a fire inside! The fire should go out on its own.
Two-thirds (66%) of home cooking fires started with the ignition of food or other cooking materials. Keep anything that can catch fire safely away from the cooking equipment, including, but not limited to such things as wooden utensils, food packaging, curtains and towels, wooden and plastic utensils, everything plastic, paper products such as paper towels, plates, bowls and cups, and everything else.
Interestingly clothing was ignited in less than 1% of these fires. However ignited clothing accounted for 14% of all the cooking fire deaths.
The majority of burn injuries were not caused by fire or flame but as the result from contact with the hot equipment or some other non-fire source. Children under the age of five have the highest risk of non-fire burn injuries than of being burned in an actual cooking fire.
I was really surprised to learn that electric ranges have a higher risk of fires than gas ranges!
This information was primarily taken from these two sites:
Don’t leave your kitchen (or whatever area your cooking equipment is located in) while cooking! The leading contributing factor to household fires, by far was unattended cooking. 58% of home fires were attributed to using the free standing range or cooktop. Ovens accounted for 16%, microwaves came in at 5%, portable cooking equipment or warming units were at 4% and grills, hibachi, and barbecues were responsible for only 2%.
Frying foods on the stove top is responsible for the majority of food related fires and using cooking oils increased these numbers significantly. Be careful when frying, especially if you are using cooking oil!
Call for help immediately. Don’t try to fight the fire yourself! Three out of every five cooking related fire injuries occurred when people tried to put the fire out by themselves. You can help contain the fire by closing the doors behind you when you leave the kitchen and the house.
If you see a fire starting in your oven, either turn it off by the control or flip the breaker. KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED!! Never open the oven door if you see a fire inside! The fire should go out on its own.
Two-thirds (66%) of home cooking fires started with the ignition of food or other cooking materials. Keep anything that can catch fire safely away from the cooking equipment, including, but not limited to such things as wooden utensils, food packaging, curtains and towels, wooden and plastic utensils, everything plastic, paper products such as paper towels, plates, bowls and cups, and everything else.
Interestingly clothing was ignited in less than 1% of these fires. However ignited clothing accounted for 14% of all the cooking fire deaths.
The majority of burn injuries were not caused by fire or flame but as the result from contact with the hot equipment or some other non-fire source. Children under the age of five have the highest risk of non-fire burn injuries than of being burned in an actual cooking fire.
I was really surprised to learn that electric ranges have a higher risk of fires than gas ranges!
This information was primarily taken from these two sites:
Click to access cookingfactsheet.pdf
http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList