OMG Did I leave the oven on!

8/9/2019 (Permalink)

About Ten years ago I was a mother of two very small boys, and a stay at home mom with a military husband that was gone a lot for work. It was a cold winter’s night and I decided to make brownies. Well it was dinner time and I realized I was out of butter. I loaded my littlies in to the car, and off we went to the store. I took us about 30min to get back to the house. To my surprise the fire department was about to break down my front door. The smoke alarm went off which notified our security system which then called the fire department. I had forgotten the brownies in the oven!! Thank goodness there was no fire but my home was full of brownie smoke. I am sure we have all been there at some point in our lives.

In the study, the NFPA outlined that “Cooking equipment was the leading cause of home structure fires and civilian fire injuries and the second leading cause of home fire deaths,” and accounts for over 47% of all reported home fires.most cooking fires occur during the holiday season between November and December, however, the risk is always there. Be cautious, and aware of all cooking equipment.

Here are some tips:

1. If there is a fire in the oven, shut it off, and do not open the door. By opening the door oxygen is now free to feed the fire, which does not solve the problem. Keep the door shut, and the lack of oxygen will eventually cause the fire to die out.
2. Do not leave dirty pans on the stove, anyone, especially children, can walk by and accidentally bump the knob and thus turning on the oven.
3. Do not pour water on a grease fire! The water will sink to the bottom, and steam will make the flames rise higher. Use a fire extinguisher. In addition, 55% of non-fatal home cooking fire injuries occurs when the victim tries to fight the fire themselves!

Enjoy your meal, but please be careful of the dangers of cooking equipment. But if the unthinkable happens, don’t be afraid to call SERVPRO of Benton and Linn County, we will make it “Like it never even happened.”