Fire fighters’ warning: Takeaways might save your skin this Christmas

FORGET cooking, have a takeaway after your Christmas revelling.

It might just save your skin and your kitchen.

That’s the message London fire chiefs have been giving to people gearing up for Christmas party season. More than a quarter of house fires in London are caused by people trying to cook when drunk.

With Christmas party season now in full swing, London fire brigade commissioner Ron Dobson urged revellers to have a takeaway instead of trying to cook up a storm when they get in from a night of drinking.

“Our message is simple, if you’ve had too much to drink, don’t go home thinking you’re a contestant on MasterChef,” he told the Independent.

Tom Daly of Dublin Fire Brigades Fire Prevention Office echoed such sentiments and said cooking and drinking were not a good mix around Christmas time.

“Drinking and cooking don’t go together at any time, particularly at Christmas. People come in at night and put on a pot of something and, next thing, they fall asleep and cause a fire.”

He said that more often than not, cooking problems actually occur on the big day itself as people unused to using their cooker make a meal of it with the turkey.

“Some people don’t use their oven a lot and maybe only do at Christmas. It may not have been cleaned and suddenly you get a fire in the oven which can cause the kitchen itself to go on fire,” he said.

Christmas time is an extremely busy period for Dublin City Fire Brigade, with the service usually receiving over 130 calls between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, or 65 calls each day.

According to Mr Daly, the major fire troubles experienced at Christmas are caused by a lack of common sense and by allowing seemingly innocuous situations, like falling asleep with a cigarette, to spiral out of control.

“People often overload sockets, as there are a lot more things in use at Christmas, such as Playstations, things like that. Also, people use candles and night lights which might cause a fire if not put out. They need to be treated the same as any other flame. It’s important that people have a smoke alarm, and an escape plan should something happen. You don’t want to spoil Christmas by taking unnecessary risks,” he said.