Home fires often start in the kitchen. If a blaze erupts while you're cooking, it can quickly get out of control. After it’s out, you'll likely need fire damage restoration and smoke odor removal as well. Some foods are more likely to burn than others. Here’s what you should know about cooking foods with flammable ingredients.

How to Avoid Fire Damage Restoration in Your Kitchen

1. Fatty Foods

Oil and grease catch fire easily, but pouring water on grease fires makes them flare instead of putting them out. If you’re frying bacon or deep-frying chicken thighs with oil, exercise caution. Sunflower oil is particularly prone to catching fire because it has a low flash point—the temperature at which an oil flares when exposed to a flame. If fatty food catches fire in your kitchen, cover the pan with a lid, or pour salt or baking soda over the flame to extinguish it.

2. Sugary Foods

Sugar, a carbohydrate, also burns easily. Making candy and caramel often requires very high temperatures. The combination of high temperatures and easy ignition of sugar increases fire risk. Don't leave sugar mixtures unattended. Stay at the stove and act quickly to smother flames with a lid if a mixture combusts.

3. Alcohol-Based Sauces

Sauces flavored with alcohol may add delicious polish to a dish, but they're very flammable. Although flaming liquors is a commonly used technique in some cuisines, don't leave a bottle of alcohol near the stove. Not only the liquid can burn but also the vapor. Always turn your stove’s ventilator on to draw vapors and smoke out of your kitchen.

If you need fire damage restoration, contact A-1 Cleaning & Restoration in Red Wing, MN. They have over 30 years of combined experience restoring fire-damaged kitchens for residents of Goodhue County. They provide not only fire damage restoration but also carpet cleaning, water damage repair, mold remediation, and more. To schedule service, call (651) 385-8442, or visit their website to learn more about how they will help you.