Reporter’s Notebook: ‘Tis the season for fire safety

Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for home fires, according to the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York, which offered some safety tips.

Nearly four times as many home cooking fires occur on Thanksgiving as on a typical day, the National Fire Protection Association reported this week. Unattended cooking and cooking accidents are responsible for the majority of home fires and fire deaths, according to NFPA, the numbers of cooking fires reached highs in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Officials in a media release offered some tips for holiday safety, including:

• Have working smoke alarms. Three of five home-fire deaths nationwide occurs in homes without smoke alarms or working smoke alarms.
• Be cautious while cooking. Stay in the kitchen while frying, grilling or broiling food, officials said, and turn off the stove if leaving the kitchen. When simmering, baking, roasting or boiling, check the food regularly, and remain at home while food is cooking.
• Use a timer as a reminder about cooking food as guests, phones, children, pets and other activities can be distracting.
• In case of a cooking fire, leave, closing doors to help contain the fire, and call 911 after leaving.
• Do not use water to put out a grease fire. Use a fire extinguisher, or baking soda, salt or a tight lid. Keep a lid nearby to smother small grease fires, and turn off burners on the stove top. Also, keep a box of baking soda near the stove.
• For an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the oven door closed.
• Turkey fryers that immerse a turkey in cooking oil pose a significant danger of hot oil being released or spilled, which could lead to devastating burns and property damage. The NFPA discourages the use of outdoor gas-fueled turkey fryers that immerse a turkey in hot oil.

For more information on fire safety, visit the NFPA website at www.nfpa.org.