Nashville Fire demonstrates Thanksgiving cooking dangers

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    NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) — With just a little more than a week to go until Thanksgiving, many of you are probably planning your dinner menus.

If you’re thinking about frying your turkey this year, the Nashville Fire Department has some warnings they want you to hear first.

Fire officials say when you fry foods, you increase the risk of a cooking fire.

The National Fire Protection Association says every year, deep-fryer fires cause five deaths, 60 injuries and destroy about 900 homes.

So here are a couple tips from NFD to help you prevent a turkey fryer fire:

Use your turkey fryer only outdoors on a sturdy, level surface, far away from things that can burn. Officials say turkey fryers can easily tip over, spilling hot oil across a large area.

Another tip: make sure your turkey is completely thawed our before you fry it.

They say a partially frozen turkey will cause hot oil to splash everywhere.

They also say to make sure you’re using the correct amount of oil and to first place the turkey in the pot with water.

When a cooking pot is overfilled, oil can spill over when the turkey is dropped in.

Another piece of advice: check the temperature of the turkey fryer often with a cooking thermometer so the oil won’t overheat.

And fire officials also say to use long cooking gloves that cover your hands and arms to avoid burn injuries from the pot, lid and handles of your turkey fryer.

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