Quincy, MA – Year after year, hundreds of people are killed and thousands are injured as a result of one of humankind’s most essential and pleasurable activities: cooking. The pursuit of a home-cooked meal remains the leading cause of home fires and fire injuries, according to new data from the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association).
As the holidays bring a heightened emphasis on cooking, the NFPA wants to get the word out that people can enjoy a safe holiday — if they stay at the stove while they’re preparing hot food. In six out of seven incidents in a study of home cooking fires, ignition occurred while the cook was out of the kitchen.
In 1999, the latest year for which statistics are available, there were 96,200 home structure fires attributed to cooking equipment, including 1,800 fires confined to a cooking vessel. These fires resulted in 331 civilian deaths, 4,183 civilian injuries, and $511.3 million in direct property damage. Three out of four home cooking fires involve the range. And two-thirds of the time, according to one study, the fires start within the first 15 minutes of cooking.
“Cooking fires remain one of the toughest problems we face,” said John R. Hall Jr., Ph.D., of NFPA’s Fire Analysis and Research Division. “We have made less headway in preventing cooking fires than in preventing other kinds of home fires.”
Home fires have been declining-but those associated with cooking have been declining at a much slower rate. For example, home cooking fires declined by 29 percent from 1980 to 1999, but home fires in general went down by 49 percent. Deaths from home cooking fires declined 21 percent during that period, but total civilian home fire deaths dropped 44 percent. And while injuries from home cooking fires went down 7 percent in those two decades, total civilian home fire injuries fell 19 percent.
A study of 45 unattended-cooking fires in New Zealand, done by the New Zealand Fire Service in 1998, showed that distraction and forgetfulness were the key reasons why devices intended to warm up food ended up starting a fire. About half the time, the study found, the cook was in another room, typically because he or she forgot that something was cooking or was distracted by children, phone calls, visitors, television or other interruptions. In eight fires, the cook was outside the house. In 14 fires, the cook was off the property (in eight cases having forgotten that something was cooking).
People often try to put out cooking fires on their own, and more than half of non-fatal cooking fire injuries occurred while fighting the fire. (That contrasts with total home fires, in which firefighting is involved in only one-third of non-fatal injuries.) With cooking fires, the safest response is not what may first come to mind. Using a fire extinguisher or applying water risk splattering and spreading the fire. A safer choice is to smother the fire by covering a pan with a lid or closing the oven door.
The NFPA advises these safety steps during cooking:
- Don’t leave cooking food unattended.
- Roll up sleeves and don’t wear loose clothing.
- Ban children and pets from a three-foot “safe zone” around the stove.
- Keep pot handles turned in to avoid spills.
- Keep pot holders, dish towels, food packaging and other clutter off the stovetop.
- Clean cooking equipment; built-up grease can catch fire.
