Fire Prevention Month: Cooking Fires Are One of the Main Causes

It's National Fire Prevention Month. This time of year is a good time to check everything and make sure your family is safe and your home is as prepared as possible.

We asked Assistant Fire Marshall Greg Adamitz from the St Cloud Fire Department to come in and talk about Fire Prevention Month and make everyone knows of some things that we need to be aware of to help prevent a fire in our homes.

We'll be presenting different parts of the interview over the next few days but one of the first things we discussed is what are the main topics for this year's Fire Prevention Month. What are you focusing on? Assistant Fire Marshall Adamitz said getting the word out, and making people aware is goal number one.

He also said that one of the leading causes of fires in St. Cloud is cooking fires and that the city has had 50 cooking fires in the last six months.

The majority of them are skillets with overheated oil. A few of them actually get going. So, to put a grease fire out. Have a lid handy, an extingusher is good and even good old fashioned baking soda. Cover it, take it off the heat and let it sit. Don't run across the room with the pan. You could make the fire worse and spread it around your house. - Assistant  Fire Marshall Greg Adamitz, City of St. Cloud, MN

We will get into more about fire extinguishers, dryer vents and other topics you need to be aware of, in the coming days.