Bringing it Home: Cooking Without Fires

bringing home with sarah and neil sarah here we are another week we are we finally made it to fall break for my kids you're excited about that aren't you yes i tell you we are celebrating something or observing something this week that's pretty important yeah it's actually a fire prevention awareness week and actually started yesterday so it's the 8th through the 14th of so we need to get going on this so what's it all about well i honestly couldn't even know this was a thing that you brought it to my attention but um it is a week that the national fire prevention association sponsors to um help people be more aware of what they can do to prevent fires and what to do if a fire occurs and there's actually like some history connected to this that you told me about you know i kind of dove into this and i'm going to recommend that all of our listeners google this but a great chicago fire now this happened back in 1871 on october the 8th so like yesterday was the anniversary of this happening but it was a devastating i mean like horrific event that happened in chicago but google it it actually is the reason why we observe fire prevention awareness week today correct that's right a lot of people lost their lives and it really changed the way that cities and towns uh began to build you know not just structures but roads and things too so it is interesting for sure and it's also this week is the longest running public health observance in our country so that's pretty interesting well and this year they're focusing on cooking safety and you know we love to cook we talk about food a lot so this is a great time to think about this and the slogan is cooking safety starts with you how about that right and honestly i know you like statistics i had to look one up according to the national fire prevention association cooking is the leading cause of home fires with nearly half of all home fires involving some type of cooking equipment and you know i guess that's understandable because you know there's so many appliances and things that we use while cooking so this is kind of concerning i think we need to get some of the questions answered to kind of keep us a little bit safer while we cook well i i think you're right and we brought a special guest today because we do not have all fire related answers we have no fire related answers so uh we have asked actually uh one of my family members my brother-in-law jeremy channel is with us today he is the assistant fire chief with the covington fire department here in covington tennessee so welcome jeremy thanks sarah thanks to me glad to be here well i mean sarah you don't need this education if a fire happens you just call your brother-in-law he would probably be like why did you call me right well after this education he's gonna say you should know what to do so jeremy i guess my first question is you know some people have gas tolls some have electric tolls is there one or the other that's more likely to be called a kitchen fire it's a great question um not really um it's all about what you do with appliance right it's all in how you use it and how you understand how to use it uh obviously with a gas stove um there's an open flame so that's obviously a concern um with an electric stove you have an induction top so uh burns um children in particular or or even us adults we forget that uh that thing's hot a lot of times we'll uh we'll put our hand up there if we think it's not hot and it still is um but really it's it's no one over the other they're both um can be good and they both have some downsides to them and i'll tell you you know the open flame part i guess that's what kind of makes people think sarah that a gas stove would probably be more dangerous but i'm hearing that they're about the saying it's what you do right just being careful and like jeremy said knowing how to use your stove right correctly yeah yeah so another question along these lines jeremy um what if we're cooking and a pan on the stove top catches fire what is what's our response does it matter if it's gas or electric or is the response the same the response is we start screaming but we only do that we need to like take some kind of action i'm guessing right jeremy that's right so the biggest thing is to say calm right um so regardless of what type of stove you have if you're able to um turn it off turn the knob turn the knob off uh and then cover it right so if you're having an open pan take take the pan top and just cover it right so why do we do that we want to take the oxygen away right or put itself out um but if it's beyond um your control uh and you can't do that uh you have a home fire extinguisher use that fire extinguisher if that's not an option for you then obviously um get out of the house get out of the structure and call your fire department call 911 wow okay because i mean you know you're going to panic in that moment but you're saying stay calm and we know what to do you know cover it so we cover it whether it's a gas stove or an electric stove is that correct so if it's an electric stove obviously cover uh cover the pan yeah and if you can turn turn the guy off um turn the knob off in a gas stove you want to shut off the gas um so if you can turn the knob on the gas to shut the gas off then cover it with cover it with a metal um we've even seen people pour baking soda things of that nature into a pan uh to get it off so so what really causes the the fire is is going to be what's in that pan uh whether the pan has has boiled all the water out or whatever the liquid is in the pan or whatever the food item is in the pan right um and that causes just the heat or it could be um splattering of grease right or cooking oils um which would go on through the wall or maybe the cabinets above uh and that's where the fire gets bigger so it just depends on where you're at which stage of what you get going on so how to cover that jeremy what do we do with the inside of the oven catch the fire okay so inside of the same thing turn it off um turn it off need that door closed right because it's compartmentalized it's not gonna it's not really gonna spread and then call your fire department so hopefully by the time those guys get there it's out we'll close it okay it's just like a bedroom door keep your doors closed right okay so don't open it investigate great keep it closed we won't compartmentalize what happened right and finelia right goes back to that panic mode that um you know my cake is burnt i've left it in here way too long well then you've given it oxygen so you've made it produce that flame again and then you know it could get larger but if you close that off you're putting the supply of oxygen off to it and it'll essentially starve itself out if that makes sense it does it makes perfect sense so let's jump outside to some outdoor cooking you know jeremy we like to grill so what are some safety precautions we need to prevent um you know a big fire when we're grilling so the first thing i think in our area we see a lot of people will have their grills under under a carport or they'll be on a um a deck or they'll be out underneath a um like a second floor awning or something um a lot of places apartment complexes especially um get the grill out get it away from get about five feet three to five feet away from a building where um that just contact or exposure is not there so you don't have to worry about the building catching on fire right if something were to happen whether it be a gas grill or um wood fire to charcoal fire grill whatever it may be the biggest thing is getting that grill away from the structure itself well that makes sense because if it does you know your grill does produce more fire than you want you want and that's right and for your listeners that do live in apartment complexes you'll probably find that that is a rule of the apartment complex um on your balconies no grills allowed um so just check with check with your residents and see what the rules are yeah that's a good question yeah people say why we're grilling so okay thanksgiving is not too far off there man i'm gonna confess this i have never tasted fried turkey before but you're missing out i've never had it but i know a lot of people deep fried their turkeys in their backyard so i want to know what types of things do people need to consider it that's something that they are planning to do in november right so you're right neil that that seems to be maybe a call we receive pretty pretty annually um the biggest thing is they're putting the oil um on top of a burner right top of a gas burner and it's at a high high rate so the biggest thing is still the boil over and when that flammable liquid boils over and hits that open flame then we pretty much got to roll in and go on fire um and it's connected to a lpg tank so the biggest thing that we could tell you on the front end is um two things really make sure that turkey is thawed out and make sure you've dried it off before you put it into that oil and then the second thing is uh make sure that your oil is not over the level where it will spill over um and i guess thirdly is really make sure it goes back to just like your cooking grills make sure that's off of um make sure it's not on the wood deck make sure it's not right you know make sure it's a couple feet away from a building uh so you're kind of out in the open with that and then uh we recommend that when you do place the uh turkey into that bath of hot oil that you turn the burner off uh and if it don't if it were to spill over you wouldn't have that open flame for that uh for that large fire to start i just don't think we're going to try this at home jeremy i'm gonna be honest it is it is worth the reward um if you do it properly and if you just take those couple steps we just talked about uh you really do have a good product okay i may have to try it but sarah you're concerned about some of the stuff inside aren't you well you know we talked on our uh kitchen eva show a lot about kitchen appliances you know um and if you know me you know that i love my air fryer and my slow cooker and all that stuff so jeremy let's talk about those types of things in the kitchen you know all the handy gadgets and appliances we have do you have suggestions for that and i mean what do y'all see the most of related to fires related to kitchen appliances so kitchen appliances what we've seen uh primarily two things stick out uh the first one is your toaster um your toaster can get very very hot um and make sure you clean the inside of your toaster it's usually a little tray at the bottom that you can pull out to clean out um but the big thing we see there is malfunctioning over overheating of the coils um so when your toaster is not being used unplug it don't immediately place it back into the cupboard or cabinets uh leave it out let it cool down it's kind of like your iron right that you're on your clothes with uh you want to get some space where it can cool down so that's really the first thing that sticks out is the toaster and then the second thing is the your coffee pot believe it or not is probably the second thing in my head that shows up a lot uh with kitchen appliances that we've had issues with uh and it's kind of the same thing the heating element will will um has the potential to to malfunction and cause cause an issue there um so the same thing if you're not if it's not in use unplug it let it cool down use it for when you need it and then turn it off well you just name the two things i use every single day you probably use them at the same time literally so you know they do draw a lot of electricity so yeah i mean i guess it would be the same too with like air fire you know an electric skillet like riddle just only plug them in when they're using they want to pull down for you so absolutely right absolutely right well that we can do yeah we can do those things so i'll go back to something you mentioned earlier jeremy um you talked about using a fire extinguisher um to put out those fires so i kind of went to some of the home improvement stores their website some of the big box stores and you know when i saw it i saw it from price low to price high so i just want to know the cheaper fire extinguishers are they okay for our homes or do we need to shell out more cash and be like a mid-grade or does it really matter any preparation is worth it um they're okay you just got to remember what you're what you're what you're looking for what you're what you need i guess that's the way to say that um so in a house uh we recommend what we call the abc extinguishers um each letter represents a different uh property that that particular chem or that particular extinguisher will cover um going back to that we're talking about the cooking fires earlier on the stove top um so if i had uh cooking oil i had vegetable oil and i want to fry french fries on top of my stove well i wouldn't put water in that because water reacts with that oil and it creates a bigger fire um so i want like a dry chemical type extinguisher for that to be able to put that out so those are the type of things that you'd be looking for when you go into these like you said the big box stores or or the stores in your area to find those type things the best advice is make that stop by your local fire station and ask those guys tell them to come out to your house we still make house calls um tell them to come out to your house and say this is what i've got would you help me find a fire extinguisher or a lot of times we come out to houses and people want smoke alarms put in their house which is a program that probably your local fire departments participate in so they have free smoke alarms contact your local fire departments but those firemen can come out and take a look around and recommend hey you might want to get this pipe extinguisher of this pipe size based on how big your house is or what type of appliances you have or those type things so always reach out to your local firemen that's what we're here for so you're saying grab the cheap one and think you're covered not necessarily um it just depends it depends on what you've got all right okay well i didn't know fire department will come out here and do that stuff that's good to know so actually by the fire extinguisher what what kind of attention do we need to pay to it you know just does it live forever under the counter i mean what do we need to do no they do not live forever uh based on uh what they are uh there's some that are aerosol which means they're kind of like a spray paint pan right uh small things that you've seen um in some of these stores that neil was just talking about or it could be all the way up to a 20 pound uh cylinder that's got pressure in it um those are um they have life dates on them just like anything else does so yeah you want to look at those um preferably twice a year uh kind of like you do with your smoke alarms um but yeah they have a they have a date on okay so just pay attention to that at our purchase and make that part of what we check on each year i like that um you talked about smoke alarms just now like remind our listeners the importance of them and checking them i think teniel has a question about them specifically i don't know if this is a rumor or if it's the truth but i have heard that you don't need to put a smoke alarm in your kitchen area because it'll be set off easily you know when you're cooking and things smoke comes and sets it off and you get desensitized to the sound and so if there's actually a real emergency you may not respond to that sound so you shouldn't put a smoke alarm in the kitchen you should put it farther away like near a bedroom or somewhere else please clarify do we need a smoke alarm in the kitchen the great question um you're absolutely correct smoke alarms do not need to be placed in the kitchen and the secondary place that they do not need to be placed is outside of the bathroom um two separate reasons the kitchen so this year's uh national uh fire protection associations fire prevention week is cooking safety starts with you um it seems that a lot of people use smoke alarms as a timer for their kitchen right so i know that's how i was raised my mother still does that to this day but that smoke alarm is not in her kitchen it is in the hallway outside the kitchen and it seems to let her know that everything's ready to eat so do not use them that way um no so to know you're right the smoke alarms are recommended suggestions for smoke alarms are inside each bedroom in your hallway um and in the common areas uh minus your kitchen minus your bathroom so um that's really where they're recommended now you're right there you're right there you're right there you're right there you're right there you're right Thank you. over the last i don't know well just in my career over 20 years um smoke alarm technology has changed a lot so you see we used to tell you twice a year when the clocks change to change batteries in your smoke alarms well there's still some of those alarms that are out there that have to have a basically a nine volt battery most of those are nine volt batteries um that need to be changed those twice a year um you should be testing your smoke alarms monthly regardless of what kind you've got but technology has changed now they've got these 10 year batteries so a lot of the uh the stores that are in your area they carry those um they're an internal steel battery so you can't replace those uh and they're good for 10 years so the thing with that is you need to check the back of your smoke alarm and see what the born on date is that's what i call it see when that was manufactured and in 10 years from that date needs to be replaced sometimes a little sooner um but generally speaking 10 years um so those really the kind of two that are out there now you can also find smoke alarms that have carbon monoxide detectors so they're a dual type of alarm uh that are out there as well there's different types of smoke alarms um and and yet again reach out to your local fire department uh they can help you with those type of smoke alarms to know which one's the place where uh but generally speaking uh an issue that we kind of run across is that we'll get a phone call uh and the resident will say hey my smoke alarm is making this deep noise so we'll go out there we'll find that you know whether whichever type of smoke alarm it is uh but what we found is the batteries are okay it's just that the dust particles can get in there uh in the sensor and sense that there's a problem uh so that's why i'll make a noise so uh yes don't be desensitized to that sound uh if it goes off there's a problem and it's telling you that there's a reason that it's going off so get that get that checked well i certainly thought that was a rumor i i'm glad to clear that up so we don't need to put it right in the middle of the kitchen sarah yeah that makes a lot of sense i've never really thought about that before yeah in the bathroom remember that too because it's the same coming out of the shower or off the sink that yeah you know when we did our house a couple years ago every bed now you're saying that like we didn't have smoke alarm in every bedroom we do now so and another thing i'll just just add that to that um talking about changes um in new construction a lot of your building code uh fire code will dictate that you've got to have um wired in hardwired smoke alarms um so the benefit of that is they actually have power to them uh they'll have a backup battery in them but they're powered through your through the power of your house uh and when one goes off they all go off so instead of um so instead of say you do have an incident and um say say a fire for whatever reason where to start let's just stay in a bedroom area down a hallway and if you're on the other side of the home all of those would go off if you had to hardwire fancy wow it kind of gives you that uh hey there is a problem we've got to get out wherever we are i have to ask you this question so do you just get super excited when you know that fire prevention awareness week is like coming i mean do you like get it in your mind and like gear up for this week is this week we live for all year long we kind of not just live for the week we live for the month um we like to spread the message throughout the year but yes you're correct um i can speak for myself i know the guys that i work with here at our department we do look forward for the entire month and i'll tell you why because it gives us the opportunity to get out into our school systems uh and we get to visit the kids so we get to spread that message of fire um fire prevention uh and it's also fun because we do utilize the national fire protection association's mascot you've probably heard of him his name is sparky and sparky the fire dalmatian dog uh sparky's been around for a long time uh and the kids seem to resonate with sparky uh and the best part of that is we get to go out share that with the children um and they go home and they talk to mom and dad or grandparents or guardians whoever that may be but they get to go home and share that message so every year they're coming home and they're kind of telling them something different that it's all really the same right so fire prevention in general um so so it's neat to see how that can actually resonate in your community and you can see the the amount of fires or their particular type of fires you can see them decrease over time well that's that's really awesome and i'm glad that we're maybe helping y'all spread the word a little i guess i'd like to ask one more question before we wrap up and you just kind of alluded to this as you talk to kids about it how would you um tell our listeners like if you could give them one thing to say about like pre-planning at home like having a plan what would you what would you tell them the importance of that and maybe a tip or two on how to execute a you know fire plan in your home yeah great question sarah so one of the things that we try to do uh while we're educating the kids is put that piece in there to let them know that once once it's too big or or you know fire fire detected that you need to get out right um wherever you are you need to get out the fastest way you can get out and we want you to leave your house or the business or hotel or wherever you are and go to a safe meeting place right because um so sarah let's just take your house uh if you're in the front of your house uh teniel and i are over visiting and we're in the kitchen and we're in a separate part of the house and smoke alarm we're gonna go off and you may go out one door and teniel and i may go out the other but uh we're gonna try to find each other right make sure everybody's out of the house right so we just try to share with um with the kids and share with your listeners that get out of the house have a safe meeting place where you all know um where to go you can do that by just talking about it uh with your family if you're in your home uh you can go you can draw pictures of the floor plan or the layout of your house and say if you were here go out this door or go out this door um to the fastest way out um what if you encountered something at this door could you go out this window those type things talk it through with your family and your friends wherever you live and make that make that a priority to know that hey if something were to happen especially with your family and residents right we're probably the most vulnerable at night when we're all asleep right right so you know something shockingly happens and you gotta get out quick uh you know can i get down the hall to get my kids or uh you know do they know they can go out one day or go out this door or wherever maybe we all meet up at this location so yeah that's very important lots to think about today and jeremy we sure do appreciate you uh joining us and helping us with all of these tips sarah we got a lot to think about today in terms of fire safety we do and i was reminded just the things that i do every day but i need to make sure you know when i'm four in my morning coffee i really need to pay a little bit more attention to it yeah fire prevention awareness week right now so everybody get a plan check those smoke detectors and make sure that you are doing what you can to keep your family safe thanks again jeremy thank you ladies for having us appreciate it thank you all for listening in the words of bob marley live the life you love and love the life you live take care everybody