Speaker 1:
The coming week brings a time of family traditions and togetherness, but Thanksgiving is also one of the most dangerous days of the year in your kitchen. The reason, cooking fires.
Speaker 1:
They’re blamed for more than half of all fires in a given year, started when something like grease ignites on your stove.
Speaker 1:
These fires cause millions of dollars in damage, but more importantly, they cause injuries, and even death.
Julia Ancrub:
It did it within minutes, because I know I wasn’t gone but a second or two.
Joe Ancrub:
If she came close to the door, I did see the flame, it just raised up.
Speaker 4:
It only takes seconds, in the blink of an eye.
Speaker 4:
Your kitchen stove can go from this to this. A massive fireball rolling through your home.
Speaker 4:
Each day firefighters put their lives on the line to protect you and your home. The most common cause of house fires? The Overland Park Fire Department’s Tricia Roberts says, “Cooking.”
Tricia Roberts:
They’re our number one cause of fire nationally and here in Overland Park.
Speaker 4:
Unattended cooking is the leading factor in these fires, but even a watched pot can boil over if something like grease gets too hot.
Speaker 4:
In the case of Joe and Julia of Overland Park, it was a stove fire that destroyed their kitchen in 2009. In this case, it was candle wax.
Julia Ancrub:
I went ahead and took the candle and stuck it on a pot similar to this one, and we took the whole candle.
Speaker 4:
Candle wax, just like grease, is highly flammable.
Julia Ancrub:
And I turned the stove on as low as I could, and the back burner, and turned it down to simmer.
Speaker 4:
And once the flames start, they can explode into a fireball if the wrong decision is made in those crucial seconds.
Speaker 4:
That’s what happened in Julia’s case.
Julia Ancrub:
It kept flaming up very high, and as I kept walking out, and he had the door open, I said, “I can’t, I can’t,” and I took it and I flipped it with the water and it went all the way up to the ceiling.
Speaker 4:
The number one thing you don’t want to do is what?
Tricia Roberts:
You don’t want to move a pan that’s on fire, and you especially don’t want to put water on it.
Speaker 4:
Julia escaped without a scratch.
Speaker 4:
But as for the Ancrub’s home, the flames hit the drapes, catching them on fire, and smoke filled the house. In the end the damage totaled $200,000.
Speaker 4:
To demonstrate just how dangerous a cooking fire can be, we enlisted the help of the Overland Park Fire Department.
Speaker 4:
In a test kitchen at the Fire Training Center.
Speaker 6:
That one’s rolling.
Speaker 4:
We set up eight cameras, five inside and three outside. Firefighters set a pot of grease on the stove and heated it up, within about eight minutes, we had our fire.
Speaker 7:
Everybody clear?
Speaker 4:
This is where so many homeowners make that crucial split second mistake, trying to move a burning pot to the sink, and pouring water on the flames. Because of the level of danger, our firefighter extended a pole with only a cup of water through a window.
Speaker 7:
Three, two, one, go.
Speaker 4:
An unbelievable fireball erupts from the pot, it roars up the ceiling, and then all the way across to the other end of the room, water proving to be the absolute worst thing you can throw on a cooking fire.
Tricia Roberts:
Well, it instantly turns to steam, so what you end up with is something like an explosion.
Speaker 4:
So what should you do to prevent an explosion of fire in your kitchen? Our expert says, first of all, never move the fire.
Speaker 4:
What happens when you move it off the stove?
Tricia Roberts:
Well, you run the risk of dropping it. Fire likes air. When you move a pan you give that fire more air, it can come back at you.
Speaker 4:
In most cases a fire can be extinguished right on the stove by using a lid.
Tricia Roberts:
You’re just going to take your lid, touch the edge of the pan, slide the lid across, and then turn off the heat.
Tricia Roberts:
It’s important that you do turn off the heat.
Speaker 4:
And never lift that lid until the pan cools. Fresh air allows the flames to reignite.
Speaker 4:
Another option, for a broader coverage, grab a cookie sheet or a pizza pan.
Tricia Roberts:
You can use a simple cookie sheet, as long as it covers the circumference of the pan, just do the same thing you did as the lid, just slide that cookie sheet right across the top, and then turn off the heat, call the fire department.
Speaker 4:
For even added safety, fire experts recommend installing these, StoveTop FireStops. These tiny cans cover two burners apiece, they hang magnetically from your hood vent.
Speaker 7:
All right, fire is lit.
Speaker 4:
We put these to the test next after starting a second grease fire.
Speaker 4:
As the flames jump and reach the can, they ignite the tiny red fuse on the bottom. The can pops open, dropping a powdered chemical to snuff out the fire.
Tricia Roberts:
It’s just like a mini fire extinguisher, only it works by itself.
Joe Ancrub:
It’s truly a good safety device.
Speaker 4:
The Ancrubs now have the StoveTop FireStops installed over their stove.
Joe Ancrub:
This would have prevented the fire having new things like this.
Julia Ancrub:
The fire department told me I could have gotten hurt, I was lucky I didn’t get hurt.
Speaker 4:
And that’s rare. In three of every five kitchen fires where someone is hurt, those injuries are the result of the victim trying to fight the fire themselves. These days Julia plays it safe when she cooks.
Julia Ancrub:
I have a cookie sheet right here, ready to smother the fire out.
Speaker 4:
Because she never wants to see this again.
Speaker 9:
Even the sound is sinister. It’s amazing, I’ve never seen anything like that.
Speaker 1:
I never would have known. No, I didn’t either. I’m afraid to say I was one of the people who probably might have put water on that.
Speaker 9:
Yeah, me too, probably.
Speaker 1:
Now, we talked about the StoveTop FireStops, these are one of those things that you can hang off of your stove.
Speaker 1:
The other thing is this thing, it’s a new product, it’s basically called a Fire Protection. It’s an aerosol can that you can spray on the fire, it actually cools it down, as well, it cools the surface to the touch. These are some of the things that the Overland Fire Department wants to say that they can’t endorse these products, these are just many things that are on the market that you can think about.
Speaker 9:
I’ve never even heard of those things.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, but they’re things you can think about if you don’t want to deal with that in your own kitchen.
Speaker 9:
And what about a fire extinguisher, we have them in our houses, most people do, is that effective as well?
Speaker 1:
I have one, I felt so grown-up when I bought it eight years ago.
Speaker 1:
It’s completely expired, I pulled it out from under the counter. Look, it would be worthless if I ever pulled it out, so if you do have one, pay attention to the information on it to make sure that it is still worked, fully charged, you can get those replaced or recharged if they run out.
Speaker 9:
Well, you can see from the little arrow thing if they’re charged, yes.
Speaker 1:
There’s a gauge, right. We’ve got a lot of information our website, several different factors to tell you about, dealing with fires, fire extinguishers, and some of the products, so you’ll find all of that at kshb.com, and when Thanksgiving Day rolls around and you’re all in the kitchen, we hope everybody’s careful.
Speaker 9:
Well, it’s great information as this big day comes.
Speaker 1:
Thanks, oh, I learned a lot.
Speaker 9:
Thank you very much. Did you see that? Yeah.
Speaker 10:
If that happened, there’s no doubt about it, I’d go get a big thing of water and just pour it on it, do you know-
Speaker 9:
No, you won’t now.
Speaker 10:
No, I won’t now.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 10:
But that’s what I would have done.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 9:
And what are you going to do?
Speaker 10:
I’m going to take a cookie sheet and smother it.
Speaker 1:
And when you-
Speaker 9:
He was listening. Very good.
Speaker 1:
And turn off the flame.
Speaker 10:
Do you know what I’m really going to do? I’m going to call 911. .
Speaker 9:
You’d run out of the house.
Speaker 1:
You could do that, too.
Speaker 9:
Take the dogs and go.
Speaker 10:
Help. All right, that’s when I get the dogs. All right, let’s see what’s going on weather-wise-
