Albany Fire Dept. to provide turkey frying demonstration, urges caution when cooking this Thanksgiving holiday

ALBANY, Ga. – The Albany Fire Department is putting out their annual fire safety warning ahead of Thanksgiving to make sure no one gets hurt this holiday.

Head of Fire Prevention, Assistant Chief Marcus Glass says that the centerpiece of any Thanksgiving, the turkey leads to one of the biggest fire hazards.

“Turkeys especially are hazards that bring a lot of situations where we have to come out and houses that are catching on fire or yards that are catching on fire, because of using those turkeys and frying those turkeys this year…” said Asst. Chief Marcus Glass, Head of Fire Prevention, Albany Fire Department.

The turkey itself those large frying pots are always a focal point when fire departments demonstrate how cooking the turkey can go wrong.

“There are a lot of things that happen with the turkey. Frying the turkey, simply because people overfill with the grease. A lot of times, what’s happening is the tipping of the turkey fryer, it can tip over and go into the fire,” he said.

Chief glass also mentions one other aspect if you’re planning on frying your turkey to keep an eye on if things start going bad…

These fryers are creating grease fires.

“One of the things that people are going to want to do, once they get that grease fire is put water on it, which is only going to cause it to spread even more. So, this year we want to make sure that everybody knows the safety parameters that need to go around if you’re frying a turkey or you’re going to have a lot of guests in your home with a lot of holiday decor,” he said.

But, Asst. Chief Glass wants to stress to everyone that if you are cooking to keep an eye on things in order to have the best chance of preventing a fire.

“We want to make sure that if you’re doing any cooking, if you’re cooking this holiday season, make sure you’re in the kitchen with the things you’re cooking and don’t leave them unattended,” he said.

To remind the public ahead of Thursday about fire safety, the Fire Department will be holding a demonstration of just how dangerous frying a turkey can become without proper set up.

The Fire Department will be holding the demonstration Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. at the Fire Station on Honeysuckle Road.

Brian Roche reporting.

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