National Home Fire Safety Week (November 24-30)
Number of home fires that start in the kitchen
Source: Statistics Canada
Average of fire-related deaths per year
Source: Firefighting in Canada
%
Fire-related injuries that occurred in the kitchen
Source: Statistics Canada
As the holiday season approaches, kitchens across Canada will heat up with family feasts, late-night baking sessions, and the occasional “experimental” recipe. Unfortunately, this is also when cooking-related fires spike, often turning celebration into catastrophe within seconds.
During National Home Fire Safety Week, November 24 to 30, the Canada Safety Council is reminding Canadians that the most common cause of home fires isn’t candles or Christmas trees — it’s unattended cooking.
The fix isn’t complicated. It’s awareness, attention, and a little bit of common sense.
The kitchen should be the heart of the home, not the hazard. The holidays bring joy and togetherness, but also distraction. Staying alert and taking a few simple precautions can make all the difference between a memorable meal and a dangerous accident.
Read on for tips on how to stay safe proactively:
Stay with your station
Most kitchen fires start when cooks step away “just for a minute.” Grease can ignite faster than you can unwrap a stick of butter.
If you must leave the room, even briefly, turn off the stove or ask someone to keep watch. Multitasking and open flames are an awful pairing.
Control your chaos
Clutter is a quiet saboteur. Keep oven mitts, utensils, packaging, and towels well clear of heat sources. Wipe up oil splatter as it happens; residue buildup can ignite later, long after the meal’s over. And if you’re deep-frying, use a thermometer and stay below 175 °C (350 °F). After all, hot oil doesn’t need an invitation to explode.
Dress for the task
Flowing sleeves, scarves, and polyester blends make fine holiday fashion but poor fire-resistant gear. Opt for fitted clothing or roll sleeves snugly. It takes just one brush of fabric across a burner to start a chain reaction you’ll remember for all the wrong reasons.
Watch the kids and pets
Keep children away from stoves and ovens. Children often want to feel included in this element of the holidays, so give them age-appropriate tasks like washing, stirring, and setting the table.
Regardless of what those tasks may be, stove-related activities are generally not recommended for children, especially in potentially hectic or high-traffic situations like the holidays.
House pets, too, are known to take advantage of the chaos and try to scoop up any food that might be dropped. This in turn creates a tripping hazard, as a busy kitchen may not afford room to notice or react to the pet.
Because of this, it’s always a good idea to maintain constant supervision of our furry friends and keep them out of the way.
Know how to react
If a pan ignites, never move it. Smother it with a metal lid or baking sheet and kill the heat. Baking soda can help with small grease fires; water will only make things worse.
Make sure every adult in the household knows where the fire extinguisher is and how to use it — and, of course, that it actually works.
A little prevention goes a long way. But should these preparations still lead to the worst-case scenario, be sure to have an exit plan.