As part of National Fire Prevention Week, October 7 to 13, the
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued new
statistics on household fires. As a cooking professional, I was
startled to learn that fires were most likely to be caused by
cooking equipment which accounts for about 40% of all household
fires. Portable heaters and home heating and cooling equipment
were also high on the list. According to the CPSC and the U.S.
Fire Administration (USFA), the most important thing you can do
to protect yourself and your family is to install smoke alarms
on every level of your home, in every bedroom, and outside every
sleeping area. They also recommend using interconnected alarms,
so that when a single alarm detects smoke, it sets off every
alarm in the house. In its most recent study, conducted between
2008 and 2010, the CPSC found that chances of surviving a
household fire nearly doubled in homes with properly installed
smoke alarms. Remember never to leave cooking foods unattended.
If you have elderly re