Advice to the Community
Conclusion
- More than 50% of reported fires and 66% of unreported fires
are the result of cooking.
- Chip pans and hot oil are an important factor in many serious
fires.
- The method of cooking is not an important factor.
- The main problem is leaving cooking unattended.
- Most people deal with, or try to deal with, cooking fires,
and are successful - but this leads to a high number of injuries.
- Fire education programmes and campaigns could usefully include
burns and scalds in the kitchen as a wider issue than just
fire-related injuries.
- The issue is particularly relevant to households with young
chidren.
Intervention strategies for fire safety with chip pans and cooking,
as with all home-based fire risks, need to be compatible with
the pressures of everyday life and be acceptable to people as
something they can actually do.
Chip
pans
- Chip pans and hot oil fires need particular emphasis because
they have the highest potential to cause death, serious injury
and the kind of fires that a householder cannot easily control
or put out.
- The main problems stem from the very high temperatures that
burning oil or fat attain, making them difficult and dangerous
to approach; and the fact that burning oil or fat fires
cannot be put out with water, which means they can
easily spread and grow too big to be controlled or put out.
Many local and national fire safety education strategies deal
with the subject of chip pan fires. The key prevention message
- which is always worth repeating - is about not using too much
fat or oil to prevent boiling over or spilling. In addition,
many strategies emphasise using sealed and thermostatically controlled
cooking appliances, or safer alternative products such as oven
chips. Prevention messages also try to change behaviour by reminding
people not to leave pans unattended while cooking.
The key messages on what to do if a fire breaks out are
also repeated and emphasised by almost all campaigns. The main
message is do not move the pan - because this
will bring you into contact with the heat and flames, and is
the most likely cause of injury. Most campaigns also suggest
turning off the heat. Almost uniquely in domestic fires, chip
pan campaigns almost always include advice on how to
tackle the fire in safety by smothering the fire with
a damp tea towel or fire blanket. (See the Good Practice examples
in this module for more details of campaigns including these
core messages.)
Unattended
Cooking
- The basic message, do not leave cooking unattended,
is sound advice. However, it has to be qualified to make it
realistic and something people can do in real life. Most people
expect to leave food to roast in the oven, or to cook slowly,
and many have kitchen timers to let them know when to go back
to the kitchen; in the meantime, they have other things to
do.
- It is important therefore to single out the message about
the types of cooking that cannot be left unattended
- frying and grilling. To make it even clearer that these precautions can be
taken in real life, and to help people be safer, is to recommend
an audible timer that can be set for a few minutes. These range
from built-in devices as part of the cooker to clockwork 'alarm
bell' types. The point is that the sound will remind
people that they need to get back to the food they
are frying or grilling, even if they have been called away
in that short time, for example to answer the phone or doorbell,
or to attend to a child.
Fighting
Fire
- The Fire Service has always tended to avoid telling people
to fight fires, or how to. Most published information centres
around the message Get out - call the fire brigade
out - stay out.
- The number of kitchen fires, and the evidence that many of
them are small and have been successfully put out by householders,
suggests that this may not always be the best advice - and
certainly that it is not seen by householders as the most realistic
and practical advice.
- When human nature and experience, however, suggest that people
acting promptly can handle kitchen fires successfully, and
statistics show that thousands of people do, it may be wise
to think about adapting the core advice to -help people
to put out kitchen fires without harming themselves.
- As the statistics show that only 3% of householders fought
fires with extinguishers or fire blankets, it may be worth
considering looking at what simple, practical firefighting
advice we can give. However, these messages should always be
backed up with advice on when to admit defeat (how
to know when you can no longer fight the fire in safety) and
the 'Get out - get the fire service out' message.
Young people under 16 should be taught not to fight fire.
- One example of simple firefighting messages would be in raising
community awareness of multi-purpose dry powder extinguishers.
The advice on using these could usefully include other fire
safety information, for example:
- that when using an extinguisher, you must have
an escape plan to get out of the room;
- how far away from the fire you need to stand
to avoid being splashed back by burning fat or oil;
- how to assess the danger from fire and whether
- in the fire service's professional assessment - you
should try to fight it or call 999;
- take actions that are not directly linked to
fighting the fire: turning off the heat at the main switch
or valve;
- use fire blankets not only to put out fire, but
to protect yourself when going near a fire;
- the dangers of setting fire to clothing.
Burns
and scalds
Multi-safety messages are already an essential part
of the Community Fire Safety Toolbox approach. Most fire prevention
material targeting cooking/kitchen safety already includes
information and advice on burns and scalds where they
can be caused by positioning of pan handles or by electrical
flex (e.g. when doing the ironing), but do not often
include advice about hot liquids (apart from oil or fat
for frying) in pans, kettles, cups etc, or about the
safety issues of pets underfoot or on work surfaces.
The young and the old
The effect that children can have both on being injured and
causing accidents in the kitchen is not often dealt with in fire
safety publications, although it does feature in other household
safety materials that are available.
In the USA, the standard safety message is to 'enforce a 36
inch kid-free zone around your stove'. In the UK, this translates
into a 1m safety zone around the cooker. In practice, this means
keeping young children out of the kitchen much of the time (while
acknowledging that this could mean them getting into other danger
while a parent is cooking). They should certainly not be allowed
onto work surfaces. In homes with kitchen/dining rooms, people
should be advised that there needs to be some kind of guard around
the cooker.
A particular risk with toddlers is that they reach up and pull
kettles or chip fryers by the flex or pans by the handle and
burn themselves when the contents fall on them. They also frequently
burn their hands on oven doors. To help protect them, pan guards
for around the cooker top are available, but teaching
young children 'no' is far more important and effective.
As children become older, they can be given more responsibility.
Teaching them how to prepare food and cook in safety, with an
adult to supervise them and make sure they are properly dressed,
etc, is the best way for them to learn to carry out these basic
life skills in safety.
Older people are less likely to start fires in the kitchen,
because they usually have much greater experience (although there
may still be some who have never cooked for themselves) and fewer
distractions. They are, however, more likely to have difficulties
caused by physical disability or infirmity. These can lead to
more injuries resulting from dropping pans of hot liquid, falling
onto cookers, or clothes catching fire. Although there are fewer
accidents, the injuries that result can be more serious, and
there is a higher death rate in this age group - and even more
so for women than men.
Much of the fire safety advice that will help to protect older
people is closely linked to, or even identical to, advice that
helps them retain their independence and general safety.
The
young and the old
The effect that children can have both on being injured and
causing accidents in the kitchen is not often dealt with in fire
safety publications, although it does feature in other household
safety materials that are available.
In the USA, the standard safety message is to 'enforce a 36
inch kid-free zone around your stove'. In the UK, this translates
into a 1m safety zone around the cooker. In practice, this means
keeping young children out of the kitchen much of the time (while
acknowledging that this could mean them getting into other danger
while a parent is cooking). They should certainly not be allowed
onto work surfaces. In homes with kitchen/dining rooms, people
should be advised that there needs to be some kind of guard around
the cooker.
A particular risk with toddlers is that they reach up and pull
kettles or chip fryers by the flex or pans by the handle and
burn themselves when the contents fall on them. They also frequently
burn their hands on oven doors. To help protect them, pan guards
for around the cooker top are available, but teaching
young children 'no' is far more important and effective.
As children become older, they can be given more responsibility.
Teaching them how to prepare food and cook in safety, with an
adult to supervise them and make sure they are properly dressed,
etc, is the best way for them to learn to carry out these basic
life skills in safety.
Older people are less likely to start fires in the kitchen,
because they usually have much greater experience (although there
may still be some who have never cooked for themselves) and fewer
distractions. They are, however, more likely to have difficulties
caused by physical disability or infirmity. These can lead to
more injuries resulting from dropping pans of hot liquid, falling
onto cookers, or clothes catching fire. Although there are fewer
accidents, the injuries that result can be more serious, and
there is a higher death rate in this age group - and even more
so for women than men.
Much of the fire safety advice that will help to protect older
people is closely linked to, or even identical to, advice that
helps them retain their independence and general safety.