Cooking safety for the Thanksgiving holiday

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Thanksgiving is one of the greatest American holidays to spend time with family. It can also be dangerous in terms of cooking safety. Hanna Malak of the Red Cross offers some cooking safety tips.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, Hannah, and of course we continue to talk about cooking. It's a big deal and it's also

00:06big for this season because we have big meals for the holidays, which is why it can be so

00:10dangerous for fires. So we want folks to have a happy and safe holiday season and we've got some

00:17quick tips that can make it easy for people and ensure they have a good time and a safe time.

00:21And is it simply the dangers? Is it simply leaving the kitchen unattended while you're

00:30cooking the biggest danger? Or is the biggest danger, I've heard a lot of people start deep

00:36frying their turkeys and that's where we've had lots of problems. Could you give any information

00:41on that? Yeah, it definitely varies. If someone is going to fry a turkey, we want to make sure

00:46it's fully thawed. If you're in the kitchen grilling, broiling, frying, whatever you're

00:50doing and you have to step away, make sure you turn that stove off. And technology makes it easy.

00:54It's easy to set a reminder on your phone, but want to turn that stove off if you step away from

00:59the kitchen. And of course, smoke alarms are also an important part of all this preparation. How is

01:06the Red Cross helping to keep people safe in their homes? Yeah, we've got an amazing program called

01:11Sound the Alarm, where we go into homes and install free smoke alarms, but we also talk

01:17about safety information, how to get out of your home under two minutes, making sure you have more

01:21than one exit. It may not be the front door, it may have to be a window. Having that emergency plan,

01:26staying informed is really important. Are there any safety tips to lower the risk of a home fire

01:34as well? Yeah, especially with cooking, as many folks are cooking this holiday season,

01:39you want to avoid wearing baggy clothes or loose-fitting clothes. I think of that famous

01:44scene in Mrs. Doubtfire, where Robin Williams is cooking the lobsters and catches on fire. Also,

01:49removing any packaging or paper or wooden utensils that may catch on fire. Remove those from the

01:54stove when you're cooking. All right, Hannah Malik, National Spokesperson for the American

02:00Red Cross, thank you again for joining us this morning. Have a good Thanksgiving. Thank you, you too.

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