Fire service chiefs have urged people to take extra care while cooking this weekend, following a spate of house fires yesterday (6th August).
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service say around half of accidental fires in the home start because of circumstances surrounding cooking.
Yesterday the Fire and Rescue Service were called to four separate incident, one due to a chip pan and three related to pan cooking. These events lead to people were treated for smoke inhalation and some were taken to hospital.
In each case crews also used special ventilation equipment to clear the smoke from the homes.
Fire chiefs are reminding people never to leave cooking unattended and to be particularly careful with hot oil and chip pans.
“It is unusual to have a spate of fires like this – all starting in the kitchen and all causing a lot of distress and smoke damage. Luckily no-one was seriously injured but the effects of smoke inhalation are very unpleasant.
If you are cooking and have to leave the kitchen for whatever reason, simply turn off your hob or oven while you’re out so you prevent the risk of something smoking, burning or catching fire.”
(Paul Duggan, Head of Prevention)
If your pan catches fire:
- Don’t panic and don’t take risks
- Don’t move the pan
- Never throw water or use a water fire extinguisher on a hot fat fire
- If it’s safe to do so – turn off the heat, but never lean over the pan to reach the controls
- Leave the kitchen, close the door behind you, tell everyone else in the home to get out and don’t go back inside for any reason
- Call 999
More cooking fire safety advice can be found here.
