Being safe during Thanksgiving
MARQUETTE — Tomorrow is Thanksgiving which means it is extremely important to make sure that families are safe while preparing their meals. ABC 10’s Caylee Kirby met with the Marquette Fire Department for some safety tips.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, Thanksgiving is the leading day of the year for home fires involving cooking equipment.
“We experience more house fires due to cooking and heating appliances this time a year, so having those items inspected and making sure they’re clean and functioning properly just makes everybody safer” said Marquette Fire Department’s Captain, Jeff Green.
Aside from general home and fire safety during the holidays, one of the biggest tips that the fire department stresses is to stay home while you’re cooking these holiday meals.
“Often times when you’re cooking a turkey because it takes a long time, people will run errands and do other things and that’s a bad idea obviously leaving that unattended” said Green.
People spend hours preparing a Thanksgiving dinner to share with friends and family. But if you’re not careful, in a matter of minutes, your day of thanks could turn into a day of disaster
“In fact, in 2016, we had just less than 16,000 home fires due to cooking on Thanksgiving, so it’s a very busy day for us” said the Fire Captain.
Other tips are to make sure you know the instructions for cooking your meals and to be cautious about where you are cook them.
“Do not deep fry a turkey inside of a garage, don’t do it on a porch or a deck, and don’t do it underneath an overhang, like a soffit on your home or something like that. Give yourself a good 8 to 10 feet away from a structure, away from your house, so that if something does go wrong, the problem is not going to expand” said Captain Green.
Although Thanksgiving is a day to spend with loved ones, some firefighters do not get to be at home.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 24 years, so I’ve experienced quite a few holidays away from family. We try to make it as holiday right as possible so the crew on duty tomorrow will be having a turkey dinner and their families will be invited to join them. Unfortunately, quite often we do get called out during those meals and during those times but that’s sort-of the nature of what we do” Said the Marquette Fire Department’s Captain.