Distractions cause more fires during holiday season

Around the holidays, people are usually in the kitchen more, and have more guests in the house than usual.

Experts said having all those distractions can cause you to forget whats cooking.

Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Chief, Gale Blomenkamp, said a fire can happen in less time than you think, so it’s really important that you focus on what you are doing.

“Whether it be more family members, your cooking a larger meal, you have kids running through the kitchen, you have people wanting you to come watch this replay or the football game. Whatever that may be, people need to minimize those distractions. When your cooking, you need to focus on cooking,” Blomenkamp said.

Last year, Boone County and Columbia Fire dispatch records show they were called to seven fires over Thanksgiving.

Fires are not the only calls they get during the holidays, but burns as well. Injuries that State Fire Marshall, Tim Bean, said can be prevented.

“Turn your handles in, especially if you have little ones running around the house. That way they can’t pull things down onto them,” Bean said.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says more than twenty one hundred homes burn each Thanksgiving killing an average of ten people and injuring 50.