Cooking safety
More than 50% of the fires that we attend are caused by cooking. Distraction is the main cause of these fires, with pans and grills left to set alight because they’ve not been looked after properly. As part of our cooking safety campaign we’re asking each and every one of you to ‘Look when you cook’ and ‘Don’t make fast food your last food’.
Look when you cook
Family life is always busy, especially with young children. It’s really important that when preparing for meal times that we pay close attention to the food we are cooking and ‘look when we cook’ otherwise the consequences could be fatal.
Have fast food, not your last food
A smoke alarm is less likely to wake you up when you’ve fallen asleep drunk. Next time you have a drink don’t head for the frying pan, head for take away! Have fast food, not your last food!
Top 10 cooking tips
- Look when you cook. Take any pans off the heat if you have to leave the room. If your pan does catch fire do not remove or attempt to extinguish it. Get out!
- Do not use a chip pan, use a thermostat controlled electric deep fat fryer instead
- Do not leave children alone in the kitchen whilst cooking with the hob or oven
- Do not place anything metallic in the microwave
- Keep electrical leads away from water and keep electrical leads and cloths away from the hob
- Avoid cooking if you have been drinking alcohol
Keep the oven and grill clean, a build-up of fat and grease may catch fire - Take care if wearing loose clothing as it can easily catch fire particularly when using the hob
- When you have finished cooking, double check that you have turned off the oven
- Do not use matches or lighters to light gas cookers. Spark devices are safer.
Take a look at our kitchen safety video, featuring British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation, for our top safety tips.
