Cooking mistakes top causes of base home fires

Cooking mistakes top causes of base home fires
By Sean Kimmons, Stars and Stripes
UK weekly edition, Wednesday, January 2, 2008

RAF LAKENHEATH — Careless cooking proved to be the leading cause of fires on this base in 2007, continuing a trend typically seen throughout the Air Force, according to a base fire inspector.

Lakenheath’s fire station reported 10 house fires in 2007 as of last week, many of those resulting from unattended cooking. There were five other fire calls involving base facilities, aircraft and vehicles, said Tech. Sgt. Kevin Smith, fire inspector.

Smith cautioned that it takes only a few seconds for a hot pan of grease to erupt into a blaze.

“It happens so quickly,” he said, adding that one shouldn’t leave an open fire even if it’s on an electric stovetop.

The most recent careless-cooking fire that Lakenheath firefighters responded to involved a homeowner trying to cook French fries in a home on Spruce Close last month, he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=144&article=51359

I remember cooking my first turkey and starting a fire. Who is the IDIOT who hid that wax paper bag with the turkeys neck and gizzards in the neck cavity I wondered as it burst into flames!

Novice cooking could be the problem. Since then I've always done a full cavity search on the turkey before putting it in the oven.