Fire safety on Thanksgiving
The smells of cooking turkey will fill the homes throughout the area in less than a week.
Thanksgiving is a great American holiday.
But area residents should not take a holiday from fire safety on Thanksgiving.
In 2006, Thanksgiving Day topped the charts once again as the peak day for home cooking fires, reports the National Fire Protection Association.
There were 1,400 home structure fires involving cooking equipment that year, which is more than three times the daily average, said Lorraine Carli, vice president of communications for the National Fire Protection Association.
Cooking is the leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries.
Each year, hundreds of people in the United States are killed in fires that involve cooking equipment and thousands more are injured.
Annually, these fires result in more than half a billion dollars in direct property damage to homes and their contents.
"Cooking fires can easily be prevented by following a few simple precautions, such as staying in the kitchen when preparing a meal because fires often start when items cooking are left unattended," Carli said in a statement.
"As much as unexpected guests are sometimes a part of the holidays, you don't want the fire department arriving because your feast is going up in flames," she said.
The National Fire Protection Association offers the following tips for safe holiday cooking:
Stand by your pan
- Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling, or broiling food.
- If you must leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.
- If you are simmering, baking, boiling or roasting food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that the stove or oven is on.
- Keep in mind that you should avoid wearing loose clothing or dangling sleeves while cooking. Loose clothing can catch fire if it comes in contact with a gas flame or electric burner.
No kids allowed
- Keep kids away from cooking areas by enforcing a "kid-free zone" of three feet around the stove.
- If you have young children, use the stove's back burners whenever possible, and turn pot handles inward to reduce the risk that pots with hot contents will be knocked over.
- Never hold a small child while cooking.
Keep it clean
- Keep anything that can catch fire-pot holders, oven mitts, wooden utensils, paper or plastic bags, food packaging, towels or curtains-away from your stove top.
- Clean up food and grease from burners and the stove top.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture offers the following tips for handling food safely.
Safe steps in food handling, cooking, and storage are essential to prevent foodborne illness. You can't see, smell, or taste harmful bacteria that may cause illness. In every step of food preparation, follow the guidelines to keep food safe:
- Clean: Wash hands and surfaces often.
- Separate: Don't cross-contaminate.
- Cook: Cook to proper temperatures.
- Chill: Refrigerate promptly.
Shopping
- Purchase refrigerated or frozen items after selecting your non-perishables.
- Never choose meat or poultry in packaging that is torn or leaking.
- Do not buy food past "Sell-By," "Use-By," or other expiration dates.
Storage
- Check the temperature of your refrigerator and freezer with an appliance thermometer. The refrigerator should be at 40 degrees or below and the freezer at 0 degrees or below.
Preparation
- Always wash hands before and after handling food.
- Don't cross-contaminate. Keep raw meat, poultry, fish, and their juices away from other food. After cutting raw meats, wash hands, cutting board, knife, and counter tops with hot, soapy water.
- Sanitize cutting boards by using a solution of 1 teaspoon chlorine bleach in 1 quart of water.
Thawing
- Refrigerator: The refrigerator allows slow, safe thawing. Make sure thawing meat and poultry juices do not drip onto other food.
- Cold Water: For faster thawing, place food in a leak-proof plastic bag. Submerge in cold tap water. Change the water every 30 minutes. Cook immediately after thawing.
- Microwave: Cook meat and poultry immediately after microwave thawing.
Cooking
- Cook ground meats to 160 degrees; ground poultry to 165 degrees.
- Beef, veal, and lamb steaks, roasts, and chops may be cooked to 145 degrees; all cuts of fresh pork, 160 degrees.
- Whole poultry should reach 180 degrees in the thigh; breasts, 170 degrees.
Serving
- Hot food should be held at 140 degrees or warmer.
- Cold food should be held at 40 degrees or colder.
- When serving food at a buffet, keep food hot with chafing dishes, slow cookers, and warming trays. Keep food cold by nesting dishes in bowls of ice or use small serving trays and replace them often.
- Perishable food should not be left out more than 2 hours at room temperature (1 hour when the temperature is above 90 degrees).
Leftovers
- Discard any food left out at room temperature for more than two hours.
- Place food into shallow containers and immediately put in the refrigerator or freezer for rapid cooling.
- Use cooked leftovers within four days.
Refreezing
Meat and poultry defrosted in the refrigerator may be refrozen before or after cooking. If thawed by other methods, cook before refreezing.
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Amantine
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11-23-08 2:21 AM
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deep fried turkey + wood porch = fun for your neighbors
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