A few common sense changes can be all it takes to make sure your family and celebration is joyous.
This year, one of the things you may be giving thanks for is the right set of Thanksgiving safety tips to keep your family and home protected. By following a few little common sense rules, you can prevent danger, damage and the need to file an insurance claim.
During the holidays, the kitchen is the heart of your home, so keep it safe and healthy this year.
Thanksgiving safety tips are usually pretty easy and are based on simple common sense. Fire safety is one of the main concerns during this holiday. After all, Thanksgiving is heavily centered around the kitchen, as families across the country prepare sumptuous feasts.
Unfortunately, all this heavy kitchen use also makes Thanksgiving the top day of the year for home cooking fires, says National Fire Prevention Association (N.F.P.A.) data. In 2016, fire departments across the United States responded to 1,570 home cooking fires on this one day. Cooking equipment was involved in almost half of all home fires and related injuries. The top contributor to cooking fires and deaths from fires on Thanksgiving was unattended cooking. In fact, it’s the second leading cause of home fire deaths in the U.S.
Keeping up with great Thanksgiving safety tips can help you to avoid these glib statistics.
Use the following tips and the handy N.F.P.A. sheet to keep yourself and your loved ones safe. This will also help you to prevent damage to your home and possessions that would otherwise lead you to have to make a homeowners insurance claim.
• Remain in the kitchen whenever you are cooking on the stovetop or are using a small cooking appliance such as a deep fryer.
• Stay in your home when your turkey is in the oven or turkey cooker, and check on it often.
• Keep children at least 3 feet from the stove and other hot appliances or sharp objects such as knives. Most reports of burns indicate that an adult looked away for only a second when a hot pot was tipped or another disaster struck a child.
• Keep the floor in all cooking areas clear to avoid tripping. This includes spills, pets, toys, bags and other items that can easily make their way onto the floor and under your feet.
• Keep all electric cords tucked out of reach of children, areas where they could trip someone, or hot appliances that could melt them.
• Never deep fry anything frozen. This can nearly instantly cause a splattering blaze and will almost guarantee burns to the cook.
• Never leave lit candles unattended and keep matches and lighters away from children.
• Test your smoke detectors at the start of the day, before you start using the kitchen.
• Go over this Thanksgiving safety tips list to be sure you didn’t miss anything on the big day.