50% of all accidental fires in the home across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight over the last few years started in the kitchen. When life gets busy it’s easy for everyone to get distracted, so we want to remind the community to stay alert when cooking.
Lone pensioners were involved in over a third of these cooking-related fires, so we are running a targeted campaign aimed at over 65s in the Southampton area, whilst also hoping to raise public awareness of kitchen fire safety to help prevent incidents and near-misses.
Following a successful trial campaign held in Southsea earlier this year, with the Recipe for Success COOK campaign, we hope to simplify kitchen safety for Southampton residents as well as other members of the community across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, with our easy to remember list of ingredients:
CLEAR – Keep tea towels, cloths and electrical leads away from the oven and hob.
OVEN – Switch off the oven and hob when you’ve finished cooking and remove pans from the heat.
OIL – A build-up of cooking oil/grease can increase the risk of cooking fires so clean regularly.
KEEP – Keep looking when cooking.
HIWFRS’ Head of Prevention Karen Farr said:
“As a Service we look carefully at the different risks our communities face across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to ensure we play our role in raising awareness of these dangers.
“Nationally each year we know that cooking causes more accidental fires in the home than anything else and sadly our local incident rates mirror the national statistics.
“Through the Recipe for Success COOK campaign we hope to highlight the dangers of unsafe cooking habits to hopefully help prevent unnecessary incidents and fires in the home.”
Over the next few months firefighters and members of the community safety team from HIWFRS will be visiting venues across Southampton to share the campaign; from supermarkets to supported living facilities and community groups aimed at older people, including Age UK, Southampton.
As well as delivering kitchen fire safety talks, the team will also be giving out some Recipe for Success campaign booklets including free recipe cards, fridge magnets and top tips. Campaign booklets will also be given to local foodbanks in the area.
All resources have kindly been funded by Community Interest Company 3SFire, who have sponsored the new Southampton campaign. 3SFire delivers specialist training to a variety of businesses and their earned profits regularly support a wide range of fire risk, prevention and safety awareness initiatives that complement the statutory activities of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Authority.
Thanks to the support of local supermarkets (Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco), Firefighters from Southampton stations and members of the HIWFRS Community safety team will be talking to members of the community about the campaign in stores throughout the summer. HIWFRS will also be promoting the campaign at St Mary’s Fire Station open day on Saturday 5 July and the Southampton Mela festival on Saturday 12 July.
Come along to find out more about the Recipe for Success COOK campaign, at the stores listed below on the following dates:
Tuesday 24 June - Asda (The Marlands), 10am-4pm
Wednesday 2 July - Asda (The Marlands), 10am-4pm
Friday 4 July - Sainsbury’s (Lordshill), 10am-4pm
Tuesday 2 September – Tesco Extra (Bursledon), 10am-4pm
Wednesday 3 September- Tesco Extra (Bursledon), 10am-4pm
Thursday 25 September – Tesco Extra (Bursledon, 10am-4pm
If you run a community group aimed at older people in the Southampton area, HIWFRS would love to hear from you. If you’d like to request a free kitchen fire safety talk, please email community.firesafety@hantsfire.gov.uk