Fire Prevention Week

Jan Doherty, Public Education, 509.625.7058

Friday, October 4, 2013 at 10 a.m.

Follow these simple tips to help prevent a kitchen fire in your home:

  • Use a timer every time you turn on the stove.
  • Stand by your pan, especially when you are frying or broiling anything.
  • Keep a lid handy to smother a small grease fire.
  • Keep combustibles such as fancy towels, oven mitts or pizza boxes off the stove top and away from burners.

Know that the best way to put out a small grease fire is to quickly put on an oven mitt, then carefully cover the pan with a lid, turn off the heat and keep the pan on the stove until it cools. NEVER put water on a grease fire. To observe the explosive effect of putting one cup of water on one cup of hot grease view Cooking Fire!

Some kitchen fires grow out of control because batteries were removed rom the smoke detectors after a nuisance alarm caused by steam. Rather than make the often fatal mistake of removing batteries, either move the ionization smoke detector further from the kitchen or install a photoelectric type of detector. Photoelectric detectors cost about $15, have fewer nuisance alarms and respond much more quickly to smoldering fires.

Fire Departments across the US and Canada annually emphasize the importance of prevention during the second week of October in remembrance of the devastation caused by The Great Chicago Fire in 1871. By the time that fire was extinguished, over 100,000 people were homeless, 250 persons had died, and 17,000 structures were destroyed.

Spokane Fire Department thanks you for keeping fire prevention in mind all year long. If you have questions about smoke detectors or fire prevention, please call 509.625.7058.