The number one cause of house fires in America, residential house fires, is unattended cooking and that is true not only in America, but in Huntsville, Alabama also,” says Captain Frank McKenzie.
This year ten people have already died in Alabama from house fires. Fifty-two killed last year. McKenzie believes it’s a simple fix.
“If we pay more attention to cooking we can lessen those numbers. We can cause less deaths in America,” he says.
-Be alert
-Remain in the kitchen while cooking
-Never leave food cooking while you go run an errand.
-Don’t wear loose fit clothing and most importantly make sure to have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
“Have an extinguisher in your house. An abc fire extinguisher that’s for fighting all types of fires and also make sure it is not near your stove,” he says.
He tells me a house fire can double in size every thirty seconds and if a fire breaks out in your home…never go back inside.
“If you standing up in that smoke and you take one breath that is enough to can cause a lot of damage inside your enteral organs and we wanna avoid that and you can get trapped very easily,” he says.
If decided to fight a stovetop fire, smother the flames by sliding a lid over the pan and turning off the burner or grab the fire extinguisher. However, if you can’t put the fire out immediately get out and call 9-1-1.
