Chipping away at the cause of kitchen fires

Thursday 19 February 2015

A third of house fires in Jersey last year started in the kitchen with people leaving food cooking unattended and firefighters want to tackle those numbers by getting Islanders to chuck out their old friers.

It’s National Chip Week and they are hoping more people will leave deep fat frying to the professionals and boost business for local chippies or oven cook their spuds instead.

But they say if you must cook your potatoes in a traditional chip pan you should follow their fire safety tips:

• Don't cook after drinking alcohol.

• Don't throw water on a chip pan fire.

• Don't overfill a chip pan with oil - never fill it more than one-third full.

• Take care when cooking with hot oil it self-ignites at 360 degrees centigrade.

• If the oil starts to smoke, it's too hot. Turn off the heat and leave it to cool.

• Use a thermostat controlled electric deep fat fryer. They can't overheat.

• Do not leave cooking unattended and avoid leaving children in the kitchen alone when cooking on the hob.

• Make sure food is dry before putting it in hot oil so it doesn't splash.

If a pan does catch fire the Service say turn off the heat if it is safe to do so, never throw water over it, don’t tackle the fire yourself, get out of the building and call 999.