20 Best Practices to Avoid a Kitchen Fire

Out of all the disasters that a prepper is likely to face, a house fire tops the list. In the U.S. alone, there are nearly half a million structural fires every year, and of them, more than 374,000 are residential fires. Most of these start in the kitchen for some reason…

These fires reap a toll totaling more than 2,700 lives and more than 10 billion dollars in damage. This is serious stuff, folks! Accordingly, if you’re a serious prepper, you will prep seriously when it comes to kitchen fires.

Just like everything else that we do, learning to prevent and mitigate fires and reduce the chances of them happening in the first place is paramount. Keep reading, and I’ll give you 20 best practices to implement in your kitchen today…

Keep Fire Extinguishers Handy!

The first and best tip I can give you should be obvious to most readers. At least, I hope it is! Fire extinguishers are your indispensable tool for dealing with household fires, specifically kitchen fires, before they grow so big they threaten the entire structure.

You want to get the largest ABC-rated fire extinguisher that you can find, and keep it handy in the kitchen. The ABC rating indicates it will put out combustible materials like paper and wood, flammable liquids like oil and grease, and even electrical fires.

Set the extinguisher somewhere nearby, but in a spot that’s unlikely to be overtaken by the flames immediately. You don’t want to get cut off!

Check the pressure indicator on it every month to make sure it’s holding pressure, and have it serviced at the manufacturer’s recommended intervals. Quick action with a fire extinguisher can save your kitchen from severe damage, save your home, and save lives!

Install and Test Your Smoke Detectors

The other essential piece of gear you need for preventing a kitchen fire disaster is a smoke detector.

If you aren’t a good cook, your smoke detector is going to go off regularly, but that’s okay: most kitchen fires start when food is overheated, starts smoldering, and then starts burning.

A smoke detector can save the day if you step out of the kitchen for any reason or if the fire starts when you aren’t actually cooking: that’s right, even if your appliances are turned on, they’re still a notorious cause of house fires, as we will learn.

Make sure any smoke detectors you have installed in or near the kitchen are situated properly and tested regularly. Once a month is usually sufficient for testing. Don’t forget to change out the batteries yearly, too!

Never Leave Cooking Food Unattended

Like I alluded to in the previous section, most fires will start and get out of control in the kitchen when you aren’t around to deal with them.

Let’s be real, who hasn’t left the kitchen to watch some TV or finish a few chores when the slow cooker is running or you’ve got something baking in the oven for a long time?

Maybe you just have to duck into the bathroom while you’ve got some burgers in the skillet on the stove top.

Whatever the reason and whatever you are cooking, this is a very bad idea. Discipline yourself to stay in the kitchen the entire time while food is cooking, because seconds can make a big difference when it comes to response time.

A small accidental fire can turn into an out-of-control, all-consuming blaze in just 60 seconds.

If you have to leave the kitchen for more than just a few seconds, have someone else in the house relieve you.

Roll Up Your Sleeves

A simple piece of advice, but one that most machine shop and factory workers will already be well acquainted with. Make it a point to roll up your sleeves if you are wearing long sleeves when cooking in the kitchen.

Aside from helping to prevent drips, drops, and stains on your clothing, it reduces the likelihood that the clothing itself will snag a pot handle or utensil or get a little too close to a heating element and catch fire.

Incidents like this can often cause a domino effect of disaster that will lead to a raging fire…

Tie Back Long Hair

This goes hand in hand with the previous piece of advice: if you have long hair, tie it back and up securely.

Leaning forward to reach for something, taste something, or smell your food might cause your hair to catch fire. That, understandably, will lead to a major overreaction and possibly a worse accident.

Remove Dangly Jewelry

And another piece of “shop safety” advice that applies to the kitchen: if you are wearing any dangling jewelry on your neck or wrists, take it off and put it in your pocket or set it aside while cooking.

These things can similarly snag pot and utensil handles, which could cause devastating spills, especially if you are cooking with oil. Likewise, these things can catch fire or just heat up to a degree that causes significant burns.

It’s fine to dress nicely while you’re cooking, but aesthetics must always take a backseat to safety.

Keep Small Kids and Pets Out of the Kitchen

For bustling families and crowded households around the holidays, this could be challenging, but it must be done. Keep small children and pets out of the kitchen and out of the way while cooking is underway.

Both kids and pets do unexpected things before thinking through the consequences, and they do them quickly. Bumping into, lifting, or pulling on an oven door, cord, pot, or pan or anything else can cause a horrific injury and easily turn into a kitchen fire.

Even if they’re kept out of the action directly, kids and pets alike are serious distractions to the adults who should be focused on the task at hand.

Inspect, Clean, and Degrease Your Stovetop Regularly

Most of us clean our kitchens regularly, but how often do you really deep clean your oven and stovetop?

A thorough cleaning isn’t just a matter of good hygiene, it’s also a matter of safety. Allowing grease to accumulate in nooks, crannies, and out-of-the-way places can make for a major fire hazard because it is very flammable.

You want to clean out the bottom and walls of your oven no less than once a month, and when cleaning the stovetop, make sure you remove burners and burner pans, if applicable, to clean beneath them.

Remember that anything left behind by the cooking process is, naturally, quite flammable. Don’t let this material build-up.

Clean and Degrease Your Exhaust Hood

A task that might be beyond the reach of your average home chef: make sure you have your exhaust hood and ducting cleaned periodically according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.

This might require special tools, partial disassembly, or even accessing it from outside the home. Most kitchen supply and restaurant supply centers can give you a referral for the professionals who can handle this.

If you’re using a non-exhausting, recirculating type of hood, which is still quite common in many homes, make sure you remove the disposable or reusable filter, clean it if possible, and replace it if not.

Don’t be surprised to find tons of grease just hanging on the underside of the unit and inside the intake.

Replace Damaged Parts Right Away

The entire time you are deep cleaning your oven, stovetop, and exhaust hood, you should be inspecting them for any indications of damage, overheating, or other problems. Look for burning, scorch marks, frayed cords, and so forth.

Likewise, on all of your countertop or other built-in appliances, check them over regularly for the same.

Any broken or damaged components must be replaced before you resume use of the appliance, otherwise, you’ll risk a serious fire.

The same goes for your cookware, too: never use a cracked pot or pan, damaged lid, or microwave with flaking interior coatings.

Never Throw Water on a Grease or Electrical Fire!

This is kitchen safety 101. Some of us learned this while we were still in high school, and some of us learned it way before that when we had to help out around the house.

Whenever you are cooking on the stovetop and your oil or grease overheats, it can burst into flames. Often this is a tall column of flames and quite scary.

The immediate reaction most people have, considering the sink is nearby, is to throw water on it to put it out. THIS IS THE VERY WORST THING YOU COULD DO!

Water and oil don’t mix, and that will cause an eruption that will burn the hell out of you and set the kitchen on fire from all the flaming oils splashing around.

Smother Pan Fires with a Lid or Baking Soda

To deal with a pan or pot of food that has caught fire, for whatever reason, just smother it. Grab the lid that is properly sized for the pot or pan, or lacking that, a metal cookie sheet that you can lay over the rim, and carefully slide it on.

This will cause the fire to consume all of the oxygen almost instantly and then go out. Then, all you need to do is turn the heat off on the burner and move the pot or pan off of the heat if you can grab the handle safely.

If you don’t have a lid or can’t safely put it in place, grab a big container of baking soda and pour it over the contents. This will likewise smother the fire and help put it out.

Practice Kitchen Accident Responses

It sounds a little silly to some folks, but it’s always worthwhile practicing emergency procedures, especially for kitchen incidents! This is especially valuable for dealing with the aforementioned grease fires, and teaching your kids to do the same.

Understand the proper procedures for responding to boil-overs, pan fires, runaway burners that are overheating, and more. Then simulate them until you can’t get the response wrong.

A little practice goes a long way to preventing injury and property damage!

Keep Heavy Oven Mitts Handy

One thing I always do religiously in the kitchen when I’m cooking, no matter what I’m cooking, is keep a pair of heavy-duty oven mitts handy. And I mean heavy-duty! These things are closer to welding gloves than the little mitts your grandma used to use.

Even if all of your cookware has insulated, heat-proof handles, or you’re cooking with a completely closed container over low heat, donning hand protection in a jiffy will help you respond better to whatever is happening.

Never, Ever Put Metal in a Microwave!

Another elementary piece of advice that most of us should already know, but I hear enough young adults bring this up in shock that I think it’s worth mentioning on this list.

Never, ever put anything metal in a microwave. Not metal foil, metal utensils, or – easiest to do – glazed cups or containers that have a metallic finish in the enamel.

This will cause arcing that will damage the microwave and potentially cause a fire. If you are around and paying attention, you’ll know when it happens, trust me!

Cook at the Right Temperature

Remember how I said most kitchen fires start because food is overheated and catches fire? Right, so you don’t want to do that!

Whether you are rushing to heat up a pan, dinner guests have arrived early, or you’re just running late with getting food on the table, resist the temptation to crank up the heat and speed up the process.

Invariably, the results won’t work out the way you think. Worse, you’ll greatly increase the risk of an accidental fire. You don’t have to preheat your pans for an hour, but you shouldn’t put your cast iron skillet on max heat for 10 minutes either.

Use Proper Technique and Kitchen Safety Procedures

There are tons of little tips and tricks that will help prevent accidents and reduce the risks of fire when in the kitchen.

In no particular order:

• always keep pot and pan handles turned away from the front of the stove so they won’t snag,
• don’t let handles rest over other heating elements or heat sources,
• don’t let utensils stay over, heat and get too hot,
• use trivets so countertops don’t scorch,
• wear an apron,
• make sure your stovetop is level,
• and always use pot holders when necessary.

Never Leave Flammable Materials Near Your Stovetop

This is easy to do, especially when you are preparing a big meal and have precious little counter space left. Keep your rags, cloth towels, paper towels, and any other flammable material well away from your stovetop.

Even when you have several inches of standoff, it’s not impossible that radiant heat could overheat these materials and start a fire, particularly in the case of paper towels, which will go up like a lit match.

Other likely culprits include plastic bags and wrappers, bowls of flour, dried herbs, cookbooks, and written recipes, and so forth…

Be Extra Cautious When Deep Frying

Deep frying food makes it delicious and incredibly unhealthy, but more importantly, it is also highly dangerous. Getting any oil up to the appropriate frying temperature means that it won’t be too far from its auto-ignition point.

A large amount of hot, bubbling oil can savagely burn you, set other things on fire, or cause a massive conflagration all on its own.

As bad as all the aforementioned kitchen mishaps can be, they are made geometrically worse when you’re working with a lot of oil.

Always bring your A-game and pay attention if you’re going to be deep frying anything in the kitchen, and if mentally you just aren’t there, or if you can’t set yourself up for success with a large enough container or enough counter space, skip it and get take-out instead.

Consider Unplugging Appliances When Not in Use

This one is a big ask for most people, but it’s critically important all the same. You should consider unplugging your appliances when you aren’t going to be home for a while, and especially if you’re leaving town.

Yes, all of your kitchen appliances still draw electricity even when they aren’t turned on, and in the case of power-hungry devices like ovens, microwaves, air fryers, and so forth, when they malfunction, they are likely to start a fire.

Even something like a coffee maker could do the same in the right circumstances.

By unplugging them, you eliminate a link in the chain that could lead to a devastating house fire, which will cost you everything. And like I said above, make sure you stay on top of inspecting and replacing cords when needed.