Toronto – This week, Toronto Fire Services will celebrate Fire Prevention Week in Toronto. With a full schedule of events planned for the week, Toronto Fire Services will promote this year’s theme of “Cooking safety starts with you! Pay attention to fire prevention” to educate Torontonians on safe cooking practices. The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Fire Prevention Week began in 1922, to commemorate the devastating loss caused by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The goal of the week-long event is to educate children and adults on important steps to take to prevent a fire from happening and actions to take in the event a fire starts.
Toronto Fire Services’ Public Educators and Fire Prevention Inspectors will conduct fire safety presentations at high schools, provide educational displays at retail locations and engage residents through a door-to-door campaign in numerous high-rise buildings across the city.
On Saturday, October 14, Toronto Fire Services will host a Fire Prevention Week open house at the Toronto Fire Academy, 895 Eastern Ave. The event aims to promote fire safety and will include various firefighting and rescue demonstrations.
About this year’s Fire Prevention Week theme
This year’s campaign on cooking safety, “Cooking safety starts with you! Pay attention to fire prevention,” emphasizes simple but important steps that can be taken to help reduce the risk of fire when cooking at home. Unattended cooking is the leading cause of residential fires, injuries and death in Toronto. In 2022, cooking-related fires accounted for 23 per cent of residential fires in Toronto.
To prevent kitchen fires and injuries, everyone is encouraged to develop and use the following safe cooking practices:
- Always stay in the kitchen when cooking food
- Have a “child-free zone” of at least one metre (three feet) around the stove
- Keep items that can catch fire, such as oven mitts, wooden utensils, food packaging and towels, away from the stovetop
- Avoid wearing loose clothing that could come into contact with heating elements and easily catch fire while cooking
Kitchen fire safety includes knowing what to do in case of a small cooking fire:
- Always keep a lid or baking sheet nearby when cooking
- If a small grease fire starts on the stovetop, smother the flames by sliding a lid/baking sheet over the pan and turn off the burner
- Leave the pan covered until it has completely cooled
- Do not move a pan that’s on fire and never put water on a grease fire
- In the event of an oven fire, turn the heat off and keep the oven door closed
- When in doubt about fighting a small fire, or if the fire grows or spreads, immediately exit the home and call 9-1-1 from outside
“Twenty-three per cent of all residential fires in Toronto in 2022 were the result of fires involving cooking. During Fire Prevention Week, please help us eliminate these fires by adopting safe cooking practices and knowing what to do should a fire begin in your kitchen. And, as always, ensure you have working smoke alarms on each level of your home and outside each sleeping area.” – Matthew Pegg, Fire Chief, Toronto Fire Services