Cooking safety reminder following business fire in Tamworth

We are reminding people of some key cooking safety tips after crews extinguished a fire inside a business in Tamworth.

Crews were called at 11.40pm yesterday (Wednesday 28 January) to a restaurant on Coleshill Street, Fazeley, following reports of smoke coming from the roof.

Two appliances attended the scene and found a small fire in the kitchen, which was extinguished by covering it with a fire blanket.

Nobody was reported injured.

Following an investigation, crews deemed that the cause was a deep fat fryer being left on.

More than 50 per cent of the fires we attend are caused by cooking. Follow our top safety tips to reduce the risk of fire:

• Look when you cook. Take any pans off the heat if you have to leave the room. If your pan does catch fire do not remove or attempt to extinguish it. Get out!
• Do not use a chip pan, use a thermostat controlled electric deep fat fryer instead
• Do not leave children alone in the kitchen whilst cooking with the hob or oven
• Do not place anything metallic in the microwave
• Keep electrical leads away from water and keep electrical leads and cloths away from the hob
• Avoid cooking if you have been drinking alcohol
• Keep the oven and grill clean, a build-up of fat and grease may catch fire
• Take care if wearing loose clothing as it can easily catch fire particularly when using the hob
• When you have finished cooking, double check that you have turned off the oven
• Do not use matches or lighters to light gas cookers. Spark devices are safer.

For more cooking safety tips, visit Cooking safety.