How to Prevent Kitchen Fires

2/24/2020 (Permalink)

Keeping your kitchen appliances clean and in good working conditions can help prevent a fire from starting.

A good number of household fires begin in the kitchen as there are many potential fire hazards present in the average kitchen. Fires in the kitchen can be hard to deal with, especially in the event of a grease fire, which can very quickly escalate out of control into a large fire endangering life and property. Luckily, the fire and smoke damage restoration experts here at SERVPRO of Downtown Atlanta are specially trained to help repair fire and smoke damage after a fire should occur. While you can’t get rid of every potential fire hazard in your kitchen, there are some pretty easy ways to help prevent a fire from occurring: 

Keeping your kitchen appliances clean and in good working conditions can help prevent a fire from starting up over the combustion of food and grease buildup. Your toaster is a good example of something that many people don’t think to clean often enough. Be sure to dump the bottom tray of your toaster out every now and then to remove the build-up of dry bread crumbs. Over time these may build up and combust during use leading to a kitchen fire. 

Another simple step to preventing a fire is to unplug kitchen appliances that do not need to be plugged in when you’re not using them. Older appliances with faulty wiring may burst into flames leading to smoke and fire damage even if you’re not using them. 

Keeping proper safety equipment ready around your home is another step you can take to help yourself in the event of a small fire. Smoke detectors should be kept relatively close to your kitchen, not too close to be easily set off by cooking smoke, but close enough to detect smoke that could indicate a fire. The batteries should be tested monthly to ensure that everything works as you never know when a fire could happen. Fire extinguishers are also an extremely important item to keep in your kitchen to help put out a fire on the spot before it gets out of control.

While cooking there are some steps you can take to prevent accidental fires, especially a grease fire, by not overfilling pots and pans with oil and grease and wiping up and grease spills. While you might not think about it, the buildup of grease and cooking oil on the surface of your stove is extremely flammable and if not cleaned up properly, may lead to a sudden grease fire while cooking. It’s also important while cooking to keep yourself safe by keeping your hair up, sleeves pulled up and not wearing clothing that is too loose as to possibly catch fire. Keep things like dry rags and paper towels away from the stove while cooking and don’t leave burners on if you aren’t using them. 

The final way to help prevent a kitchen fire is to never leave food unattended while cooking. This might seem like common sense, but leaving anything unattended in the kitchen is a potential disaster waiting to happen. Keep an eye on your food until you’re finished cooking and keep the area around your cooking space clean.

Following all of these steps can drastically reduce the odds of a kitchen fire occurring in your home, however, fires can’t always be prevented. In the event you have a fire in your kitchen, please give SERVPRO of Downtown Atlanta call at (404)-835-0200 any time and we will ensure you get your home back to working order as quickly as possible.