Good advice for householders

THE fire service met shoppers in Thurcroft recently as part of a campaign to reduce the risk of kitchen fires.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue met customers at The Co-operative in the village, handing out money off coupons for oven chips alongside fire safety advice.

The ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ campaign forms part of the fire service’s latest efforts to reduce cooking related fires, which account for half of all the house fires it attends.

The county’s firefighters tackled more than 300 cooking related house fires last year, resulting in 75 injuries.

Many of those injuries were caused by old fashioned chip pans, which is why the fire service is using money off vouchers for oven chips to encourage shoppers to bin theirs. A similar initiative last year helped to reduce cooking fires in South Yorkshire by 13 per cent.

Diane, head of community safety, said: “Cooking remains the biggest cause of accidental fires in the home, which is why we’re holding these events to speak to shoppers about basic good practice in the kitchen.”

“It’s perhaps hard to believe, in this day and age, that people still use chip pans. But our data shows they remain a real danger. You wouldn’t fill a container with flammable liquid and light a flame under it, yet using a chip pan poses the same kind of risk.”

“Oven chips or thermostat controlled fryers are much safer, meaning there is no need for people to continue putting their lives at risk in this way.”

Fire service staff are visiting locations across South Yorkshire.

They are also giving shoppers safety tips for the kitchen which include keep leads and fabrics well away from the hob and never use a chip pan; keep an eye on cooking at all times and never leave it unattended and switch off cooking appliances when you have finished cooking and before bed.