GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Late Wednesday morning at a Grand Rapids fire station, the crew returned from a call, firing up the stove and oven to prepare their meal.
While the firefighters prepared their sausages, bacon and hashbrowns, many are preparing their kitchens for turkey, stuffing and all the fixings for their Thanksgiving meals.
For Fire Marshall Bill Smith, the most important step for preventing fires while prepping your Thanksgiving meal is simple.
"Stay in the kitchen," said Smith. "At any point that you've got something on the stove or in your oven, you should be in the proximity of that cooking operation."
To ensure operation Thanksgiving goes off without a hitch, Smith said to keep flammable objects away from your oven and stove, know where your fire extinguisher is and turn off the stove or oven if a fire begins.
"Your first action should be is shut down the power source, so if you have an electric range, shut your range down. If you have a gas stove, turn off those knobs and get that fuel shut off," said Smith.
He also said that for oil fires, it is important to smother them and not attempt to douse them with water.
"Get a cover, place it over the pan and move away," said Smith. "If you have to deploy extinguisher, do it from a point of safety where your door is right next to you, because if it gets away from you, you want to make sure that you can get out and let everybody else know that they need to leave the structure."
The winter weather that arrives in November also prompts some people to pull out their space heaters, which Smith said should always be turned off when going to bed, and should never be plugged in using an extension cord, power strip, or multiplug in order to prevent an electrical fire.
Smith said that when people set up Christmas lights, or while using space heaters, to be mindful of flipped circuit breakers, which he said contributed to a fire that GRFD responded to earlier that morning.
"They flipped the circuit breaker back on, and they went to bed for evening. Now, they woke up to a fire," said Smith, adding that there were no injuries. "This is your circuit telling you that there's a problem. When those lines get heated, that is what that circuit breaker is designed to do. It will trip. It will shut off the power for that line, and you shouldn't go back on and flip it into the on position, because you could end up exactly what happened today."
Keeping Christmas trees watered, away from sources of heat and getting rid of faulty lights can all go a long way to keep families safe as well according to Smith.