Home Cooking Fire Risk Peaks on Thanksgiving Day

Local SERVPRO disaster clean-up and restoration specialist urge home cooks to make caution the first ingredient in holiday meal prep

Jacksonville, Fla. (Grassroots Newswire) November 13, 2023 - The holiday season is almost here, and it is a time when home cooking activities are at their peak. Unfortunately, all this cooking leads to a related peak in cooking fires, says Peter Reilly of SERVPRO of Fernandina Beach/Jacksonville Northeast. Cooking fires are responsible for nearly half (49%) of all home fires, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).¹ "To help keep your holidays from, literally, going up in smoke, it's critical to know and use safe cooking practices," says Reilly.

According to the NFPA, Thanksgiving is the leading day of the year for home cooking fires, with more than three times the daily average for such incidents. The NFPA urges home cooks to take some basic safety steps to help prevent cooking fires.

• Keep your cooking area clean and keep anything that can burn (dish towels, oven mitts, packaging) at least three feet away from cooking equipment.
• Keep a close eye on what's cooking, setting a timer to help you monitor foods with longer cooking times.
• Keep in mind that the leading contributing factor to cooking fires and to fire deaths overall is unattended cooking, so plan to be at home and in or near the kitchen at all times when cooking.

"For those who use a turkey fryer to cook their Thanksgiving bird," says Reilly, "it's important to note that more than two-thirds of home cooking fires begin with the ignition of cooking materials, including food, fat, and grease. The NFPA strongly discourages the use of these fryers. They use large amounts of oil at high temperatures, which can lead to the type of fire seen here.² If you do use one, follow all placement, use, and safety instructions carefully."

If the unexpected does happen, SERVPRO of Fernandina Beach/Jacksonville Northeast specializes in disaster restoration, cleanup, and repair services, helping to remediate damage, making it "Like it never even happened" for both commercial and residential customers. For more information on SERVPRO of Fernandina Beach/Jacksonville Northeast, please contact Peter Reilly at (904) 729-2401 or pamela@servpro9499.com. For more information on SERVPRO, please visit www.servpro.com.

¹https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Seasonal-fire-causes/Thanksgiving
²https://youtu.be/raU6mYXOves

About SERVPRO
For more than 50 years, SERVPRO has been a trusted leader in fire and water cleanup and restoration services, construction, mold mitigation, biohazard, and pathogen remediation. SERVPRO's professional services network of more than 2,200 individually owned and operated franchises spans the United States and Canada, responding to property damage emergencies large and small – from million-square-foot commercial facilities to individual homes. When disaster strikes, homeowners, business owners and major insurance companies rely on SERVPRO to help make it "Like it never even happened."