West Midlands Fire Service Launches Kitchen Fire Safety Campaign

Fires that occur in the kitchen account for more than half (59 per cent) of accidental dwelling fires.
Failing to take the right precautions and care while cooking can put you and the people around you at risk of serious harm and lead to disastrous consequences.

That’s why West Midland s Fire Service has launched an ongoing kitchen fire safety campaign called “Watch What You Heat”, offering simple steps to prevent them from happening.

Watch Commander Alan Swift from the Community Fire Safety team said: ”With busy lifestyles anyone can easily be distracted while cooking - a knock at the door, a telephone call or attending to a young child for example, can all distract us for enough time to allow a fire to start.

“We encourage a safe cooking environment. If you are distracted, take pans off the heat or turn the heat down if you're called away from cooking.”

West Midlands Fire Service also offers the following advice:

Never leave cooking unattended
Avoid cooking if you have been drinking excess alcohol and take care if you have taken prescription drugs - you may get drowsy or lose concentration
Be aware of spillages next to a heat source which could cause a fire to start
Be especially careful when deep-fat frying or cooking with oil because hot oil can catch fire easily. Use a thermostatically controlled deep-fat fryer, which will make sure the fat doesn’t get too hot;
If using a chip pan or other deep-fat fryer, don’t fill it more than one-third full of oil and never throw water on if it does catch fire because this will cause a fireball.

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Issued by West Midlands Fire Service’s Media Relations Office. Regular updates on incident and other WMFS activities can be found on the media voicebank on 0871 550 0056.