This picture totally had my mind ablaze when my friend, MassholeMommy posted it on Instagram. It was one of those “Throwback Thursday” pictures and I believe it was captioned something like”The day I set the microwave on fire when I tried to melt crayons”. After I was done laughing I began to seriously contemplate what I would do if I was ever in a situation and something in my kitchen was on fire. The reality is that I’d probably think “stop, drop and roll”, slip right into panic mode, do that right out the front door.
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| Thank you Masshole Mommy for allowing me to use your photo! |
Clearly my interest was sparked (pun intended) and I began to investigate further. I called my local fire department for advice and much to my surprise and delight, Fire Captain/ Public Information Officer Steve Concialdi agreed to meet with me to discuss some important kitchen safety rules. In the process he met an adorable ( I’ll admit that I am a bit biased, however I speak the truth) toddler who extremely excited to meet his hero, the fireman.
Once I was able to overcome my embarrassment make eye contact again, we being to talk about electrical fires. Lest I think about a quick repair by duct taping the cable as I’ve seen so many others do, he informed me that doing so didn’t minimize the risk. Trust me, after the stories I heard that afternoon I will never forget that the cost of a new cable is cheap, especially when compared to the lives that could be lost.
Fire Captain Concialdi also informed me that wires should be free and flat as opposed to bunched up and that nothing should be used to hold wires down. He gave an example in which a desk was accidentally placed on top of an electoral cord and the built up energy caused a fire resulting in two fatalities.
From there we moved on to the golden rule of kitchen safety, which is “never leave anything unattended.” When cooking, you should always stay in the room – and if you must leave the room you should move sure to turn the stove off. Pretty simple, right? Well the truth is that kitchen fires are the second most frequent type of fire in the nation. And when kitchen fires start, they spread so fast that they’re nearly impossible to contain if you don’t’ take immediate action. With that in mind, the Captain said to follow these steps:
- Remain calm
- Turn off the stove and place a lid over the fire
- If you are unable to contain the fire with a lid, pour baking soda on the fire
- If baking soda fails, use your fire extinguisher
- If that fails (or if you do not have a fire extinguisher) leave the house and call 911.
Out of all the kitchen fires we discussed, the one that stuck with me most was the one about a teenager who was cooking with oil. He walked about from the stove as he waited for the oil to heat up and he got distracted. A short while later, his brother entered the kitchen and noticed the black smoke pouring from the pan. Not knowing it was oil, he filled a container with water and threw it towards the stove, causing a back-splash of oil which, unfortunately, landed on him. Despite the pain I’m sure he was in, he thought quickly, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and was able to contain the fire. He suffered some major burns but fortunately he’s okay.
Incidents such as that are more common than you might think. A large fire happens every three days and smaller fires happen several times each day. It’s critically important that we use common sense, and even more important that we take nothing for granted. I’d imagine that includes not trying to melt crayons in the microwave (ha, ha).
