The kitchen of every home contains the ingredients for a dangerous fire. Reduce your risk of having a damaging kitchen fire by utilizing the following precautions:

• Keep cooking areas and appliances clean and clear of combustibles. Don’t place towels, potholders, or food packaging on the stove or near hot appliances. You might accidentally turn on the wrong burner.
• Clean any grease buildup from the stove, oven or exhaust fan regularly. Cooking oil creates vapors that collect on kitchen surfaces, such as cupboards, counters and curtains. This vapor build-up could act as fuel to a fire in the kitchen.
• When cooking with grease and oil, keep in mind that they ignite easily and burn rapidly. Keep a lid, cookie sheet, or large pan handy should you need to cover a pan fire to smother it. Don’t use water or flour as it will make the fire larger.
• Avoid loose-fitting clothes like nightgowns or robes while cooking. Roll up your sleeves and keep other pieces of clothing well away from hot stove top elements. To avoid having to reach over the stove while it is in use, store frequently needed items in other areas of the kitchen. If your clothes catch fire, stop, drop to the ground, and roll to extinguish the flames.
• Turn pot handles inward so they can’t be bumped and are out of reach of children.
• Never leave cooking food on the stovetop unattended and keep a close eye on anything baking in the oven.
• Protect yourself from an oven fire by turning off the heat and keeping the door closed.
• Shield yourself from steam when uncovering food, especially micro-waved servings.
• Food cooked in a microwave can be dangerously hot. Remove the lids and other coverings from micro-waved food carefully to prevent steam burns.

Line of Duty” Author: Fire Marshal Alan Perkins, CFPS, is a 32-year veteran of the fire service. A Certified Fire Protection Specialist through the National Fire Protection Association and a member of several similar safety organizations. Perkins is the Fire Marshal for the Washington Township Fire Department, Dublin, Ohio. For more information, contact: Leslie Dybiec, Public Information Officer Phone: (614) 652-3928 Fax: (614) 766-2507 or ldybiec@wtwp.com.

Live Safe Foundation is an Ohio based non-profit organization (501c3), and leading grassroots movement, devoted to making fire safety education, awareness initiatives and life saving tools available on a broad basis to communities, campuses, and institutions in an effort to reduce national fire fatalities and fire losses. LiveSafe aims to help finance fire safety education where means are otherwise unavailable. LiveSafe is developing and sponsoring programs to help groups find the resources needed to advance individual and community fire safety.