Warning for Brits to stay safe cooking in the Bank Holiday heatwave
| 6th May 2020
With the long weekend set to be a scorcher Firescape UK is urging Brits to stay safe as its research reveals almost half of UK households (49%) have no fire safety equipment when it comes to cooking.
And as more Brits than ever are BBQing or cooking at home with one in eight making every meal from scratch during lockdown, the makers of Pan-Safe and Spray-Safe, have issued their top ten tips to stay safe in COVID COOKING whether you’re firing up the barbie or kicking up a storm in the kitchen where half of home fires start.
Top 10 Fire Safety Tips
- Make sure your meat or vegetables are dry especially if they have been frozen - this will stop your pan or BBQ spitting out oil, avoiding burns and preventing a potential fire.
- Never leave your pan or BBQ unattended – it can take several minutes to get the pan or coals hot, don’t get distracted or walk away while you’re waiting. Our independent Firescape UK research revealed nearly two-thirds of Brits admit they’ve left cooking unattended
- If you have a pan fire never use water to put it out - oil fires can be the hardest to put out and adding water will cause a major fire. If you have Pan-Safe you can just use that, if not, use a damp tea towel to smother flames. Again, our research revealed one-in-four people would throw water on a pan fire because they thought that would put it out
- Avoid wearing loose sleeves and other clothes that can catch fire from a hob, coals or the pan itself
- Clean up wrappers, tea towels, oil bottles and other inflammable items from around your cooker or outside grill as they may spark a fire
- Everyone is tight on space in lockdown but don’t be tempted to store food in your oven as it’s easy to forget and put the oven on to warm up, again with the potential to start a fire
- Don’t forget to keep your gadgets and appliances safe – many of us are dusting off appliances from griddle pans, deep-fat fryers to bread-makers with a huge uptake in more adventurous cooking, recreating our favourite take-aways. Make sure they are clean, cords aren’t frayed and don’t forget the humble toaster - if you’ve got crumbs in the bottom these can catch fire. Our Firescape UK research says over half of us (55%) don’t regularly check appliances and 27% of those, say they never do
- Make sure any hot fat or grease cools down before you put it in the rubbish and dilute it with washing up liquid if it’s going down the sink, so you don’t clog up your pipes or set fire to your bin
- Regularly clean your oven or BBQ, a build-up of fat and grease can start a fire. If you don’t have a Spray-Safe if a fire starts then keep the oven door closed and call the fire brigade
- Stay safe by following our tips to avoid kitchen fires as half of home fires start here and look at investing in fires safety equipment, especially in lockdown. Only half of Brits say they have fire safety equipment in their kitchen with 28% saying cost puts them off and nearly a quarter (24%) saying they wouldn’t know how to use them, according to Firescape UK research.
Managing Director Paul Jameson, a former chef, who devised the top 10 Covid-19 Cooking tips said: “It’s clear there is a worrying gap in knowledge about fire safety and a lack of the most basic of safety equipment in our homes or outside if we’re BBQing. Whilst it’s great news we’re all cooking more during lockdown, it’s crucial we do so safely and don’t put any extra burden on our emergency services.
“We specialise in easy-to-use products that even the most vulnerable can use which we combine with state-of-the-art technology and they are priced from just £15. Spray-Safe is the UK’s smallest fire extinguisher, the size of a water bottle that you simply shake and spray to put a blaze out in seconds, whilst Pan-Safe is a sachet you simply put into the pan and puts out an oil fire in three seconds, compared to 25 seconds for a fire blanket. “
Both products are available in lockdown on Amazon and also available to buy directly online www.firescape.uk.