Many folks in the area are preparing for their annual Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends. Price City Fire Chief Fitzgerald Peterson wants to make sure that any cooks that choose to deep fry their turkey this year take safety precautions when doing so.
“We put out a press release, as we talked earlier we had done a demo and none of us want people to think we are against it, what we want to do is present some safety concerns about what the potentials are and just people have the discretion and ability to decide for themselves if they are a wonderful thing. But there are some inherent dangers with turkey fryers and then there has been accidents across the country, some of them very serious accidents,” stated Chief Peterson.
The number one rule is to make sure the turkey is completely thawed. “If you fry a frozen turkey, you’re going to get splattered, you’re going to get boiling. Those crystal components are going to send the oil over the edge and that’s what starts these fires. The oil goes over the edge, hits the burner underneath and then you have a fire that you can’t control,” explained Chief Peterson. The Price City Fire Department shared a video demo on their Facebook page of this very technique and as quick as the turkey was dropped in the fryer a fire was started.
Never under any circumstance leave fryers unattended. “I was impressed how quickly the burner that I had heated that oil to 400 degrees. I thought I was going to be there an hour, I wasn’t there that long, I could have done it in 20 minutes. So that is something that suggests to me that I want to tell people you have to stay with that oil until this project is over with,” said Chief Peterson. Cooking oil that is heated beyond its smoke point can catch fire, if you notice the oil is smoking, turn the fryer off. It is not a bad idea to have a dry chemical fire extinguisher nearby because a water source will not dowse the fire.
“The other thing I want to bring up really quickly is if you look at the profile of those things, they are very tall. The shape of that means they are very vulnerable to be knocked over so you have to be cautious with children and pets and keep them away from your effort because it could easily knock that over and then you have a problem even if you are careful with the frozen part,” explained Chief Peterson. Always leave two feet between the tank and the burner when using a propane-powered fryer.
All members of the Price City Fire Department would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.