Northwest Iowa — It’s about time to roast or fry the bird, prepare the traditional family side dishes, and sit down to a huge feast to be thankful for our blessings.
But the National Fire Protection Association (or NFPA) says Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires, followed by Christmas Day and Christmas Eve. In 2014, nearly four times as many home cooking fires occurred on Thanksgiving as on a typical day.
We talked with Sibley Fire Chief Ken Huls about it. He says one of the most dangerous Thanksgiving cooking activities is deep-frying a turkey in a propane fryer.
Some experts advise not using turkey fryers to begin with. The NFPA says turkey fryers pose a significant danger that hot oil will be released at some point during the cooking process. In addition, the burners that heat the oil can ignite spilled oil, so they don’t recommend them.
Huls says even cooking your turkey the traditional way poses some fire risk, especially if your oven is not clean. He gives us some other tips about kitchen safety. He says a big one involves stove top cooking.
The NFPA says people should stay in the kitchen when cooking on the stove top so they can keep an eye on the food, and stay in the home when cooking the turkey and check on it frequently.
Of course the end of Thanksgiving signals the beginning of the Christmas season. Huls recommends not running extension cords for outdoor lighting if you can avoid them, and especially not to run them across sidewalks as they can be a hazard for walking or snow removal. Of course he also says you shouldn’t plug too many lights into the same outlet.
Huls recommends frequent watering of any real Christmas trees.
He also says there are going to be a lot of people on the road this busy holiday season, so people should be careful, keep up to date with the weather, and drive accordingly.
Photo: freeimages.com/Patrick Moore
