Keeping safe in the kitchen

keeping-safe-in-the-kitchen

We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking from scratch every day, as well as baking bread and cakes. My kiddos LOVE to help bake, and one thing I’ve always been really conscious about is making sure they know how to keep safe in the kitchen.

We all remember to tell them things such as tying long hair back, rolling up sleeves, washing hands and using a sturdy stool to reach the work surface – but fire safety is just as important to talk about. More than half of all accidental fires begin in the kitchen, and the majority of fires started because of electricity is due to people misusing electrical appliances.

I can remember one near miss we had, years ago when the girls were little and we lived in our old house. I’d used the hob to heat up soup to take out for our picnic lunch, and as we were leaving the house, I darted back into the kitchen to grab something I had forgotten – to find the wire for our kettle was on fire! I’d left the hob on and the flexible wire was too close to the flame and was burning. It’s such a lucky thing that I went back in – else we’d have gotten home to no house.

So, here are my top kitchen safety that I’ve taught my kiddos;

  • Stay in the kitchen – if you have the oven on, or hobs burning, don’t leave them unattended.
  • Allow appliances to cool down before you put them away – things like our waffle iron, iron, toastie maker  that we keep in a cupboard, I leave to cool down before i wrap the write around them and put away.
  • Beware of items around the hob – tea towels, oven gloves, appliances flexs – make sure they’re not too close to any open flames.
  • Turn appliances off before trying to remove stuck food, or mend them.
  • Make sure you have a working smoke detector
  • Never pour hot oil into your rubbish bin
  • Use a timer so you don’t forget you have put food in teh oven {I’m awful for this!}
  • Keep your oven and grill clean – a build up of grease is a fire hazard.

Have you ever had a kitchen fire? What tips would you add to my list?

If you’re looking for some more kitchen fire safety tips, Electrical Safety First have some great tips HERE

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