Cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires and home injuries. The leading
cause of fires in the kitchen is unattended cooking. It’s important to be alert to prevent
cooking fires.

Safety Tips 

• Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling, or broiling food.  If you leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.
• If you are simmering, baking, roasting, or boiling food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that you’re cooking.
• Keep things that can catch fire away from your stove top — potholders, oven mitts, paper or plastic bags, curtains.
• Wear short, close-fitting or tightly rolled sleeves when cooking.  Loose clothing can dangle onto stove burners and can catch fire if it comes in contact with a gas flame or electric burner.
• Have a “kid-free zone” of at least 3 feet around the stove and areas where hot food or drink is prepared or carried.
• If you have a stove fire, when in doubt, just get out and call the fire department.
• Keep an oven mitt and lid nearby when you’re cooking.  If a small grease fire starts in a pan, smother the flames by sliding the lid over the pan.  Turn off the burner.  Do not move the pan.  To keep the fire from restarting leave the lid on until the pan is completely cool.
• In case of an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed to prevent flames from burning you or your clothing.  After a fire, the oven should be checked and/or serviced before being used again.
• Open microwaved food slowly, away from the face.  Hot steam from a container of microwaved food or the food itself can cause burns.
• Never heat a baby bottle in a microwave oven because it heats liquids unevenly.  Heat baby bottles in warm water.
• Treat a burn right away, putting it in cool water.  Cool the burn for three to five minutes.  Cover with a clean, dry cloth.  If the burn is bigger than your fist, or if you have any questions, get medical help right away.
• Think Green!  Unplug small appliances when not in use.

If you have a cooking fire

• Just get out! When you leave, close the door behind you to help contain the fire. 
• Call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number after you leave.
• If you do try to fight the fire, be sure others are already getting out and you have a clear path to the exit.

If a small fire starts in a pan on the stove

• Put on an oven mitt.
• Smother the flames by carefully sliding the lid over the pan.
• Turn off the burner.
• Do not remove the lid until it is completely cool.
• Never pour water on a grease fire.
• Never discharge a fire extinguisher onto a pan fire, as it can spray or shoot burning grease around the kitchen, actually spreading the fire.

If there is an oven fire

• Turn off the heat.
• Keep the door closed to prevent flames from burning you and your clothing.
   

If there is a microwave fire

• Keep the door closed.
• Unplug the microwave.
• Call the fire department.
• Make sure to have the oven serviced before you use it again.
• Food cooked in a microwave can be dangerously hot.
• Remove the lids or other coverings from microwaved food carefully to prevent steam burns.