Thanksgiving is a time for family and food, but it’s also a time of year when the risk if home fires increases.

The National Fire Protection Association reports that Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires, with more than three times the daily average. Christmas Day and Christmas Eve rank second and third, with both having nearly twice the daily average.

In 2022, an estimated 1,610 home cooking fires were reported to fire departments across the nation on Thanksgiving Day. That a 399% increase over the daily average, the associated states on its website.

With that in mind, the Queen Creek Fire & Medical Department offers the following cooking safety tips:

• Keep anything that can catch fire away from the heat source (oven mitts, food packaging, etc.).
• Stay in the kitchen when frying, grilling or boiling food. If you must leave the room, turn off the stove.
• Be sure to thaw the turkey completely before cooking.
• Keep kids at least 3 feet away from the stove, oven, hot food and liquids.
• If you have a pan fire, place a lid on the pan and turn off the burner. Never throw water or use a fire extinguisher on a pan fire.
• If the fire does not go out or you don’t feel comfortable sliding a lid over the pan, get everyone out of your home and call the fire department from outside. 

Queen Creek offers a free recycling program for cooking oil. Cooking oil should never be dumped down a drain or disposed of in the trash, garbage containers, dumpsters or down the public sewage system. 

Cooking oil poured down the drain has a negative effect water quality and can cost thousands of dollars in sewer repairs from pipe blockages. Placing oil in trash or recycling carts leads to contamination and spillage and has the potential to cause cart fires or fires in the collection vehicles, QCFMD states.

Residents can recycle used cooking oil at no charge at the town’s year-round grease collection sites at Fire Station 2, 24787 S. Sossaman Road, and the QC Recycle Center, 22638 S. Ellsworth Road.

QCFMD also advises residents to ensure smoke alarms are installed and working. Test smoke alarms at least once a month by pushing the test button and replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old.

For additional safety information, visit QueenCreekAZ.gov/SafetyTips.