Shockingly, cooking fires now kill more people on average per year in the US than they did in the 1980s. As Thanksgiving approaches—the day with by far the most incidents—we take a look at the growing problem of cooking fires. First, Jesse talks to NFPA communications manager Susan McKelvey about the causes of cooking fires (0:55), why the problem seems to be getting worse, and resources available for educators to turn the trend around. After that, we explore the science behind the viral videos of turkey-fryer fireballs, and why this popular cooking method can be so dangerous (24:07).

Links:

Dangers of Turkey Fryers Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjUynq0HXdQ

NFPA cooking fire resources:

www.nfpa.org/cooking

www.nfpa.org/fpw

NFPA Journal article on new UL smoke detector standards:

https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications-and-media/NFPA-Journal/2018/March-April-2018/Features/UL-Smoke-alarm