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What Are the Leading Causes of Kitchen Fires?
- Leaving the stove or oven unattended
- Being distracted or tired when cooking
- Cooking while physically impaired by a substance
- Cooking with flammable materials near an open flame
- Using cooking materials the wrong way
- Leaving the oven or stove on by accident
- Having no fire extinguisher nearby
- Raising the cooking temperature higher than need be
- Failing to clean your cooking surface
- Having too many people in the kitchen at once
- Wearing loose clothing when cooking
- Using a faulty or damaged appliance/device
Leaving the Stove or Oven Unattended
The NFPA cited that 31 percent of kitchen fires from 2014 to 2018 were caused by unattended equipment. That’s far more than any of the other causes of fire the organization recorded in those four years.
Even if you’ve cooked a meal so many times that you could practically do it with your eyes closed, that doesn’t mean you should ever leave the room when your food is cooking. Ingredients can be unpredictable, as can your cooking surface, especially if it’s not clean (more on this later).
All it takes is the ingredients of your recipe reacting to the heat source slightly differently than usual and a fire could ignite. You wouldn’t even be in the room to see or hear it. By the time you smell smoke, significant fire damage could have already occurred.
Cooking When Distracted or Tired
Listen, everyone has those days when they’re bone-tired and just don’t feel like cooking. You might try to be the family hero and push yourself to cook when you can barely keep your eyes open.
On nights like these, you’re much better off ordering pizza or Chinese takeout. You’re tired and much more likely to make mistakes, including costly ones that could lead to a kitchen fire.
The same goes for distracted cooking, by the way. Whether you’ve had a bad day at work or you’re mulling something over, don’t cook in this mindset. That’s also true of burying yourself in your phone. There’s nothing wrong with using your phone to browse and follow along with a recipe. Once you’re past the prep stage though, put your phone away.
Cooking While Impaired
This is in the same vein as cooking when distracted or tired. If you’re impaired from any type of substance, even a medication you take every day, you’re not yourself. Your reaction time might be slowed, you stop paying close attention, and you may be less cautious. Please let someone else cook in this situation.
Using Flammable Materials Near an Open Flame
In their report, the NFPA explained that 9 percent of kitchen fires between 2014 and 2018 occurred because of someone using a combustible material near a heat source. Many household items are flammable, including:
- Oranges
- Flour
- Hand Sanitizer
- Gas
- Non-Dairy Creamer
- Aerosols
- Linseed Oil
You could have just made pizza dough with flour and your pan is still coated in it, then woosh, the pan goes up in flames. Perhaps you used some hand sanitizer to disinfect your hands before cooking but didn’t realize it was so flammable.
The potential for tragedy here is great. Now that you know which items are flammable, keep them far away from your stove, oven, or any other source of open flames in your kitchen.
Misusing Cooking Materials
How you utilize your cooking materials is incredibly important. Up to 9 percent of kitchen fires tracked over four years by the NFPA started because people misused what was in their kitchen. For instance, you might have seen a YouTube video or several that shows how you can make crepes on the bottom of a pan.
You’re supposed to turn the pan upside down and hold it over a heat source, then pour the crepe batter on top. Since you’re covering the heat source, you can char the top of the pan, not to mention experts have debunked that this cooking method doesn’t really work.
Cook with your pan’s bottom facing the heat source. This part of the pan is meant to be exposed to high heat, which is not the case for the top of the pan.
Accidentally Leaving the Oven or Stove On
If you have an electric stove, it’s not always easy to tell if it’s on or off. The coils can stop burning red if the stove is on but running on low heat. Even with a gas stove, you can sometimes miss the flames if they’re low.
Unless you poke your head in your oven often, you might not realize that’s on either. The NFPA stated that 8 percent of households started kitchen fires from 2014 to 2018 because they thought that they turned the oven/stove off but didn’t or they accidentally turned it on when not cooking.
Not Having a Fire Extinguisher
If the worst happens and your kitchen does catch on fire, having a fire extinguisher close by can control the flames before the blaze takes over your house. An old fire extinguisher is just as bad as having none at all though.
Park Insurance explains that fire extinguishers have different classes or ratings, A through C. Extinguishers rated a B are for gas and flammable liquid fires whereas C-rated extinguishers can put out electrical fires. Besides the alphabetical rating, your fire extinguisher will also have a number. This tells you how much square footage the extinguisher is rated to put out.
Increasing the Cooking Temperature Higher than Necessary
Did you know that the NFPA reported up to 66 percent of kitchen fires are from igniting cooking materials or food? That’s up to two-thirds of fires, which is a pretty significant error to make.
One of the most surefire ways to ignite your food is by cooking it at a temperature that’s too high. When you see recipes recommending a certain cooking temperature, the temp is not selected at random. Cooking at that temperature will ensure a level of doneness without charring your food.
If you take cooking temperature matters into your own hands, you could end up with a kitchen that’s in flames for your troubles. Even though it’s tempting to crank the stovetop temp when you’re in a rush, don’t do it.
Leaving Cooking Surfaces Unclean
As messes accumulate on and within your stovetop and oven, you can’t just leave them. Wait until these cooking surfaces are completely cooled and then wipe up your messes. That little dollop of pancake batter or shred of cheese will burn the next time you cook.
What’s worse is the char from your cooking can also ignite, and quite quickly at that, as can other built-up food accumulations. Leftover oil especially can be very dangerous, as the oil could start a grease fire. These fires tend to spread quickly and burn wildly, potentially engulfing your whole home in flames.
As per the NFPA, 8 percent of kitchen fires start from dirty cooking surfaces.
Using a Faulty or Damaged Kitchen Appliance or Device
You know your mixer is on its way out, but you have to make cookies for your child’s classroom tomorrow and you don’t want to stir the mix by hand. Surely just this once it’ll be okay. Then you try plugging in the mixer and it sparks, starting a fire.
New kitchen appliances and devices usually aren’t cheap. However, it’s much, much more inexpensive to purchase a new mixer than it is to buy a new house and replace everything you lost when your home burned down.
Wearing Loose Clothing When Cooking
That flowy long-sleeved shirt of yours should be saved for a nice romantic candlelit dinner, not worn while cooking. If you get too close to a source of flames, your shirt could ignite. Even aprons, as helpful as they can be, could create obstructions that may lead to a kitchen fire. Make sure that you tie all loose strings securely and away from the front of your body!
Having Too Many People in the Kitchen at the Same Time
The last leading cause of kitchen fires is working in a busy kitchen. The saying “there are too many cooks in the kitchen” wasn’t borne out of nothing after all. When your kitchen is a chaotic place because it’s crowded, the risk of someone making a mistake is simply too high. These mistakes could cause a fire.
What Should You Do if Your Kitchen Catches Fire?
When a kitchen fire begins at home, you might feel paralyzed with fear. Quick action can be the difference between life and death though, so you must act fast. First, get yourself, your family, and your pets out of the house and as far away from the fire as possible. Then call 911 right away. The fire department will come to your home and put out the blaze, hopefully before it damages too much.
Conclusion
Kitchen fires can start for all sorts of reasons, sometimes through simple mistakes like wearing the wrong clothing or accidentally leaving the burner on. Now that you know all the many leading causes of fires in the kitchen, you can be a safer, much more conscientious cook.