Fire safety in the kitchen is everybody’s responsibility, not just the main user of the kitchen. Therefore, in order to best protect your kitchen from fire, you must have an order how to do so. Smoke alarms are a must, if they are the right kind. Everybody can relate to the smoke alarm that goes off whenever you burn toast and you fan the smoke away from the detector so it will shut off. Eventually, you remove the batteries and sometimes forget to put them back in.

The best detector for the kitchen is the bell detector. It sounds just like the school bell and is marketed in a fire resistant metal shell. It has a metal band wound by a key and will ring at 89 decibel or better for five minutes. See Resources for where to get them.

A fire safety plan must be high priority and practiced monthly regardless of personal feelings. If we require schools to practice them often, why not families? Your plan should show where fire extinguishers are as well as multiple exits. For the kitchen, it would be good to know where to get out in the event a fire starts that is too big to handle.

Fire extinguishers are only as good as the person handling them. Get to know which kind is best for your particular need. In the kitchen, an all-purpose or ABC fire extinguisher is best.

A good rule of thumb with ABC extinguishers is to shake them twice or three times a year to loosen up the powder inside. The CO2 powder can clump over time and become useless. It should be placed in a cabinet or wall mounted in a central location in the kitchen for easy access.

Remove combustibles away from open heat or flame. Paper plates, menus and cookbooks should not be near flames or hot surfaces. Also, keep flour and powdered coffee creamers away as they can EXPLODE if too close or dropped onto fire.

Keep lids to pans close at hand to tightly fit over skillets in the event of a stove top fire. Although baking soda has been known to work, the best thing to do is cover the fire with a lid. Fire needs three ingredients: fuel, heat and oxygen. In the event of a fire, if you can remove any one of these three ingredients, you will eliminate your fire.

It is important to note that if the fire is too much involved, get out of the house and call the fire department. Regardless whether you get all the fire out that you can see, if it had gotten into the ceiling where you cannot see it can smolder and erupt with a vengeance.

Unplug unused counter top items, such as toasters, coffee makers and other electrical devices. At one time, old coffee makers were known to short out, causing scores of house fires nationwide.

In addition to this, overloaded outlets are fires waiting to happen. Spread out your devices and consider stepping up your electrical circuits to handle more amperage.

Check under your refrigerator for dust buildup and clean accordingly. Dust can ignite with a spark and cause a fire. Keep any loose papers and other items that can “fuel” a fire away. The same holds true for the fans over many stoves. The filter screen can draw in household dust and a floating spark could set it on fire.

VITAL STEP! DO NOT MISS THIS! Your “junk” drawers are often found in the kitchen where spare batteries, cords and stuff is kept. Fires have often been linked to junk drawers in houses where exposed 9-volt batteries came into contact with steel wool. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!!

Try this outside with supervision only: take a piece of steel wool and a nine volt battery. Hold the wool against both terminals of the battery at the same time and prepare to drop the wool onto a cement pavement. This can happen in your kitchen, in your junk drawer, with or without you being nearby. This can also happen in the trash can.

Practice these steps and drill with everyone who stays overnight with you. Request your children and their friends to be conscious of this when away from home. Rehearse with your siblings, parents, grand parents and neighbors. Invite members of the local fire department to come out and hold a neighborhood fire training. Make it a block safety party and invite the media.