Cooking oil: a home fire hazard in Alberta, Canada

This paper begins with a brief statistical analysis to establish the significant contribution of cooking equipment fires to fire losses and injuries in Canadian homes. Due to lack of comprehensive fire loss data for Canadian homes, further analysis is focused on Alberta data. The most frequent ignit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fire technology 1997-05, Vol.33 (2), p.140-166
Main Authors: WIJAYASINGHE, M.S, MAKEY, T.B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Annual reports
Applied sciences
Building technical equipments
Buildings
Buildings. Public works
Codes
Cooking
Cooking oils
Exact sciences and technology
Fire behavior of materials and structures
Fire hazards
Fire protection
Forest & brush fires
Injuries
Mobile homes
Oils & fats
Property damage
Statistical analysis
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper begins with a brief statistical analysis to establish the significant contribution of cooking equipment fires to fire losses and injuries in Canadian homes. Due to lack of comprehensive fire loss data for Canadian homes, further analysis is focused on Alberta data. The most frequent ignition scenario, based on a top-down analysis of Alberta home fires, was the ignition of overheated cooking oil in pots, deep-fat fryers, or pans heated on stove tops. These fires also accounted for the majority of home fire injuries. Fire characteristics of cooking oils, which point to the importance of maintaining oil temperatures below their flash points, and thermostatically controlled deep-fat fryers as the best available solution to the problem are discussed.
ISSN:0015-2684
1572-8099
DOI:10.1023/A:1015395001403