Cooking and unattended cooking fires have been the leading cause of home fires in Bentonville for over five years. While we enjoy helping and interacting with all of the people we serve, we are very bad dinner guests. Please use the following cooking tips to help us reduce the amount of cooking fires in our great city.
- Keep an eye on what you fry. Most cooking fires start when someone is frying food.
- Watch what you are cooking. Fires start when the heat is too high. If you see any smoke or the grease starts to boil, turn the burner off.
- Make sure you are awake and alert. Alcohol and some drugs can make you sleepy.
- Wear short sleeves or roll them up so they don’t catch on fire.
- Make sure children and pets stay at least 3 feet away from a hot stove.
- Turn pot handles toward the back of the stove so no one can bump them or pull them over.
- Move things that can burn away from the stove. This includes dishtowels, bags, boxes, paper and curtains.
- Never leave cooking unattended.