Thanksgiving week is here already and many of us are gearing up to cook up some large birds. I can almost feel that tryptophan coma setting in right now. Most of us are cooking in an oven. But this is the United States! So, of course, a large number of people intend to fry their turkeys. It’s part of the US diet and culture: when in doubt fry it! Frying a turkey involves filling a huge pot with oil, heating it with a high-power propane burner – often during festivities that involve copious amounts of alcohol. What could possibly go wrong?
It’s doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out heated oil and an open flame definitely have some incendiary potential. William Shatner teamed up with StateFarm insurance presumably to avoid StateFarm paying out too many claims on houses burnt down from the all-to-common turkey fire. Think of this as a humanitarian public service and a “we’d prefer not to pay for your house if you’re stupid enough to burn it down cooking a turkey” announcement. We’re happy to provide a couple key take-aways in terms of turkey frying fire safety.
Turkey Fry Fire Safety Tips
- Have a fire extinguisher rated for grease/cooking fires on-hand
- Fry outdoors
- Keep kids (and drunken adults) well away from the fryer
- Don’t fry in an enclosed space or next to combustibles like trees, your house, pink flamingos, gnomes, in-laws, etc.
- Don’t fry on decks
- Don’t forget to use your Dingle-Dangle!
- Lower and lift the turkey very slowly carefully
- Don’t leave your turkey unattended, they’re known to not-so-spontaneously combust
This list isn’t intended to cover every safety tip related to frying turkey without starting a fire, so be sure to do your own due diligence. And, before any of you get confused about the “use your Dingle-Dangle” comment, please refer to the video below (Shatner gets really perturbed by his Dingle-Dangle, but it’s still a Safe For Work video):
http://youtu.be/EYkRF_FmD40
You might think turkey fry fire video is a little melodramatic. Of course, you’d be right. However, you also don’t want to become an insurance company statistic just because you were reckless or uneducated with your turkey frying tactics. So brush up on basic fire safety and don’t be that guy or gal that puts a damper on the holiday festivities with massive fire. Thanks to my buddy Bruce for the heads-on on this quality video. And don’t forget your dingle-dangle this week!
I really thought the “dingle-dangle” was suggesting that if a fire started you should consider peeing on it. lol
Yes, the dingle-dangle is subject to a wide variety of interpretations. The dingle-dangle fire extinguisher strategy is not one I’d personally recommend (out of safety for your dingle dangle)! Although, that might have made for a funnier William Shatner video.