Frozen turkeys explode in fireballs as soon as they sink into boiling oil.
The moments are captured in public safety videos, typically filmed by firefighters in safe environments. The precaution taken in the days leading up to Thanksgiving can be amusing to those who know they don’t put frozen food in oil or shocking to those who may not.
The holiday is the busiest day of the year for boiling fires across the country, with firefighters more than tripling the workload, according to the National Fire Protection Association, which named the Christmas and New Year holidays as the next busiest.
Tim Szymanski, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Fire Department, said there were explosions but admitted that in his decades of career he had no recollection of responding to such an explosion.
From 2017 to 2019, an average of 2,300 fires were reported each year on Thanksgiving, causing an average of five deaths and 25 injuries and causing about $ 26 million in damage, according to the U.S. Fire Department.
For at least the past five years, Las Vegas appears to have been the exception to the rule, Szymanski said.
In 2020, for example, the fire brigade only responded to three furnace fires, he added.
Neither of them caused serious injuries, he said.
“The people did a fantastic job,” said Szymanski. “I don’t want to ruin our batting average.”
He gave safety tips for valley dwellers to continue the mostly uneventful series:
– Frozen foods should be completely thawed and dried before being placed in deep fryers.
– Turkey deep fryers that Szymanski said are not nationally recognized for safety and sustainability standards should only be used outdoors and at least 3 meters from any structure.
—The same goes for grills and other propane stoves.
– If a fire breaks out in an oven, the appliance should be switched off and the door closed to stifle the flames. Once the house is evacuated someone should call the fire department to clear the smoke.
– The best way to put out a pan fire is to switch off the flame, cover it with a lid, a cutting board or something similar. Adding water will only worsen the flame. Fire extinguishers are also recommended.
– During “heavy cooking times” windows and doors should be opened for five minutes every hour to remove the naturally produced carbon monoxide.
– Carbon monoxide detectors, which are not required by law but are strongly recommended, have shed calls for poisoning.
“It’s easy to get distracted on vacation,” Clark County Fire Department chief John Steinbeck wrote in a statement. “Make sure that your household smoke alarms are functional in the event of a fire and never leave food cooking unattended in a kitchen.”
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.
