Fire Prevention Week

courtesy of  Ontario Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services

I recently acquired my husband's iPhone when he upgraded to a new iPhone so immediately started customizing with all kinds of fun apps including one called Scanner911.  This app is a scanner for police, fire and emergency.  It just happens to pick up our local fire and emergency so I've been listening to it quite a bit as one of our good friends is the assistant fire chief.  Honestly, within a two day span there were at least five calls to house fires originating in the kitchen!  That is quite scary if you ask me.

In all our years cooking in various kitchens both inside and outside, we have had one small kitchen fire that was totally my fault.  Surprisingly, it wasn't cooking food but rather a flash fire when making transparent soap.  The process involved adding 95% ethanol which easily ignited by a spark from the mixer.  Luckily, I do have rather extensive WHMIS  and laboratory experience so knew immediately what to do.  The lid was on the pot in the blink of an eye without a second thought so there was no damage other than to my ego as I should have known better.   A few years ago, a neighbour fell asleep with a pot on the stove which ignited causing extensive damage and they had to go to the hospital for smoke inhalation.  It happened on a cold winter night.  Since the damage was extensive, they had to find emergency accommodations.

Kitchen fires can happen in the blink of an eye.  The sad thing is they are quite preventable.  This is Fire Prevention Week and this year's focus is preventing kitchen fires.  If you click the link under the picture it will take you to the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services site where you can find lots of great tips for preventing kitchen fires.  Please take a moment to check it out...