Make fire safety the main entrée in your kitchen
Oshawa Fire Services is encouraging community members to cook up fire safety in their homes, test their smoke alarms and practice their home fire escape plan as part of Fire Prevention Week. This year’s Fire Prevention Week runs from October 4-10, 2020 and the theme is “Serve up Fire Safety in the Kitchen!”
Approximately 82% of all fires in Oshawa occur in a residence. Unattended cooking is the number #1 cause of fires in Ontario. Most kitchen fires are preventable if the following safety tips are followed when cooking.
- Stand by your pan: never leave cooking unattended. Keep pot handles turned inward.
- If a pot catches fire, slide a lid over the pot and turn off the stove: Never put water on a kitchen fire or try to move the pot to the sink. Always call the fire department.
- Keep children at least 1 metre away: (3 feet) from around the stove.
- Wear tight fitting clothing or roll up your sleeves: when using the stove to prevent accidental clothing fires. Do not reach over hot burners.
- Clear the clutter: Remove all combustible items such as wooden or plastic cooking utensils, dishcloths, paper towels and potholders from stovetops. These objects can easily catch fire if they come in contact with a burner.
- Deep-frying is a major kitchen hazard: Use only thermostatically controlled deep fryers to prevent overheating the oil and the chance of fire.
- Keep appliance surfaces free of spills and grease: that may catch fire.
- Cooking requires you to be rested and alert: avoid cooking when under the influence of alcohol or medications.
- If you burn yourself, immediately run cool water over the wound: for several minutes. If the burn is severe, seek medical attention.
- Do not overload electrical outlets: with appliances. Use heat-producing appliances away from cupboards, curtains, and other combustible items.
Talk about and practice an escape plan
In a fire, there may only be seconds to safely escape your home. Be prepared in advance with these simple steps for home fire escape planning:
- Assess the needs of everyone in your home: Identify anyone who requires assistance to get out of the home safely, such as small children or older adults.
- Make sure that you have working smoke alarms on every storey of the home and outside all sleeping areas and carbon monoxide alarms on all sleeping levels: Make sure everyone in the home knows the sound of the smoke alarm. It is required by law that all landlords and homeowners have working smoke alarms on every storey of the home and outside all sleeping areas. Removing or tampering with smoke and carbon monoxide devices can result in fines of up to $50,000 for an individual and/or one-year imprisonment.
- Identify all possible exits (doors and windows) and make sure they work: Know two ways out of all areas, if possible.
- Everyone must know what to do when the smoke alarm sounds: Assign someone to help those who need assistance; Identify a safe meeting place outside; Call the fire department from outside the home – from a neighbour’s home or a cell phone.
- Practice your home fire escape plan at least twice a year: Have everyone participate. Make changes to your plan if necessary.
Additionally, it is important to remember to test smoke alarms monthly and replace them if they are more than 10 years old. It is also important that everyone in your home knows what to do should a smoke alarm sound. Be sure that your family has an escape plan, complete with a meeting place, and practice it regularly.
For more information on Oshawa Fire Services and fire prevention, visit www.oshawa.ca/fire or follow @OshawaFire on Twitter.