Report identifies cooking as leading cause of home fires

Cooking was involved in an estimated 146,400 home structure fires in the United States in 2005, according to a recent National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) report.

Cooking fires accounted for 40 percent of the home structure fires in 2005, and these cooking fires resulted in 480 deaths, 4,690 injuries, and $876 million in direct property damage.

Home cooking fires peak between 5 and 7 p.m.

NFPA offers the following safety tips:

• Stay in the kitchen when frying, grilling, or broiling food. If leaving the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.

• When simmering, baking, roasting or boiling food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking and use a timer as a reminder that it is cooking.

• To prevent cooking fires, be alert. People shouldn’t cook if they are sleepy, have been drinking alcohol or have taken medicine that makes them drowsy.

• Keep anything that can catch fire – potholders, oven mitts, wooden utensils, paper or plastic bags, boxes, food packaging, towels or curtains – away from the stovetop.

• Keep the stovetop, burners and oven clean.

• Keep pets off cooking surfaces and nearby countertops to prevent them from knocking things onto the burner.

• 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.

For more information and a complete list of safety tips, visit http://www.nfpa.org.