Fire Safety 101 for Home Kitchens

Talk to any professional cook and they'll regale you with horrific tales of out-of-control flare-ups and third-degree burns. One time, for instance, I watched a restaurant coworker melt the skin off his face while trying to relight the pilot light on an oven—unfortunately, he didn't take into account how much gas had built up in it before he struck the match. Another cook standing five feet away had singe marks on his flame-retardant chef's coat. Luckily, my colleague healed fully.

When I asked Sasha what kitchen fire stories he had, he launched into several, but the highlight was probably the one about a huge plastic bucket of duck fat that was placed on a shelf too close to a stove. The plastic melted and a tidal wave of duck fat splashed down onto the cooktop, exploding into flames. Somehow no one got hurt, the fire was put out, and everyone managed to clean up the grease in time for service.

These stories are morbidly entertaining only in retrospect because they all had more or less happy endings, but, of course, there's nothing humorous about the potential dangers of fire. There are too many stories out there that don't end well, and no one should be laughing about that.

Instead, we should be prepared, especially because homes are usually much less well-designed to deal with fires than commercial kitchens, which are required to have aggressive fire-suppression systems and flame-retardant materials. According to a 2010 study by the National Fire Protection Association, "41 percent of home fires started in the kitchen area and caused 15 percent of the home fire deaths and 36 percent of the reported fire injuries."

I know more than the average person about how to deal with kitchen fires, but I'm in no way a fire-safety expert, so I called up the Fire Department of New York and spoke to Lieutenant Michael Kozo, a 15-year FDNY veteran, for his expert opinion.

One of the first things Kozo impressed upon me was just how little time we often have once a fire starts. "You have 30 to 45 seconds to put out a fire before it's out of your control," he told me. "It's not a lot of time." Given that, every second counts. If we panic, if we stand there frozen in uncertainty, or if we can't remember where to find the supplies we need to fight the fire, it'll be out of our hands before we know it.

Thinking through a fire scenario in your own home before the fire happens can help you use the little time you have and may make the difference between a flare-up and a life-altering blaze. Here's what to do, starting with preventative measures, moving on to trying to fight the fire yourself, and finally how to handle a situation that has spiraled out of your control.

How to Prevent Home Kitchen Fires

Install Smoke Alarms and Make Sure They Work

Technically, smoke alarms don't prevent fires, but they're still a preventative measure. Install them now; have your life saved later. You can read the FDNY's complete smoke-alarm tips here, but in a nutshell, you should be sure to get alarms that double as carbon-monoxide (CO) detectors, and make sure they're UL-rated, installed properly, and well-maintained.

Don't Leave Food on the Heat Unattended

According to Kozo, unattended cooking is one of the leading causes of kitchen fires. "We get it: Everybody has a hundred things going on—watching TV, someone's texting, there's someone at the door, you're watching the kids, and in the midst of this you're trying to cook. Next thing you know the food is on fire." I feel like he's describing my life as he rattles off this description of a life with too many distractions, but his point is clear. "If you're going to cook, then cook, but if you're going to do five other things, don't."

Then I ask Kozo about recipes that require overnight cooking in low ovens. There's always a risk, he says, but not nearly as high as unattended stovetop cooking or leaving home while the oven is on. "I wouldn't recommend leaving the oven on and going to work for the day. But if it's a recipe that calls for a slow cook and you're home, that's not as much of a problem."

Beware of Kids in the Kitchen

As a new parent, I'm as excited as the next person to get my kid in the kitchen as soon as possible. There's nothing wrong with that, but we need to make sure our enthusiasm for exposing our children to cooking doesn't get in the way of common sense. Kitchens are dangerous places and injuries can be severe, even deadly.

Kids, especially small ones, should never be underfoot when you're actively cooking, and pot and pan handles should always be turned away from you (knives should also be well away from the counter's edge). Aside from the immediate risk of burns if a child were to grab a pot full of scalding liquid and pull it down on themselves, there's also the added risk of a fire—spilled oil can instantly go up in flames.

Keep Flammable Materials Away From Heat Sources

Cooking can get messy quickly, and countertop clutter easily builds. Be mindful, though, of what you have sitting close to the stovetop itself. A poorly placed paper towel or other flammable object can catch fire even if it isn't making direct contact with the flame.

Wear Appropriate Clothing

There's a time and place for breezy silk robes and feathery boas, but it's not in the kitchen. Loose clothes and excess fabric increase the risk they'll accidentally ignite. (Cooking naked, while very comfortable, is also risky, but in another way entirely.)

Similarly, clothes that are loose or have strappy elements are more likely to get snagged, accidentally pulling pots off cooktops. In the Serious Eats test kitchen, an unnamed staffer recently wore a very nice mechanic's jumpsuit. Only problem was the towel hoop on one of the jumpsuit's legs caught a cabinet door handle as this person walked past, ripping the door off its hinges.

Monitor Cooking Temperatures

Everyone knows about an oil's smoke point, but what's discussed less often is the much dramatically named flash point. (I feel like there had to be at least one '80s movie with that name [Editor's note: Yes, yes there was.]) The flash point, though, is a pretty scary thing—it's when the oil is hot enough to burst into flames all on its own. For this reason, you should always be mindful of the temperature of your oil when frying foods.

While you can spot-check your oil temp with a basic instant-read thermometer (see our review of affordable ones here), the easiest way to keep an eye our your oil temp throughout the cooking process is with a probe thermometer that clips onto the side of a pot. We've looked at many of the top models on the market and have shared our favorites at a variety of price points in our in-depth probe-thermometer review.

Clean Your Kitchen

There are a lot of reasons to keep your kitchen spic and span (we also have plenty of advice on how to do it). It discourages vermin, reduces the risk of cross contamination, and makes it just a little less flammable. Flammable, you say? Yup, that fine layer of sticky vaporized grease coating poorly maintained cabinets and equipment can help a fire spread even faster than it might otherwise.