Flame on! DFD shows how not to fry a turkey

Late Wednesday morning, two men prepared to lower a frozen turkey into a fryer of hot oil. Not long after the bird touched the liquid, it began to smoke before quickly bursting into bright orange flames.

Thankfully, this was all done Wednesday morning as a demonstration of what not to do when it comes to frying a turkey, with the “cooks” dressed in full firefighter gear.

Dublin Fire Chief Matthew Cutler received a call from Elizabeth Green, marketing director at Fairview Park Hospital, asking if firefighters could participate in this type of demonstration.

“We see a lot of things come through, but we know that house fires are tripled during the holiday season,” Green said. “We thought it would be great to do a little bit of safety education. We know in the South, fried turkeys have become very popular, and you can very innocently make some mistakes that could be life threatening and your life.” 

Cutler said Green sent him some videos where other fire departments partnered with hospitals to do a demonstration around the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. The Dublin Fire Department set up a turkey-frying scenario that goes wrong.

“I love frying turkey,” Cutler said. “That’s the only way I ever want turkey. A lot of people are going to be frying turkeys this Thanksgiving and potentially Christmas. We want to make sure they will be doing this the proper way.” 

The first misstep by the firefighters was not doing a water test, or bouncy test, of the turkey. Instead of putting oil in there, they should have started with water in the pot, then added the turkey and marked the full line.

“That pot actually has a minimum and maximum fill line,” Cutler said. “We are well over the maximum line.” 

The second wrong step was not thawing the turkey.

“Before you fry a turkey, you should thaw it out,” Cutler said. “It’s like we didn’t plan for Thanksgiving, and we just went to the store and we’re about to fry it. We’ve got a fully frozen turkey, and what we expect to happen once we get the oil in the red zone, there is going to be a reaction.” 

That was an understatement. The firefighters donned their turnout gear and made sure to have their hose and fire extinguisher ready. “When the frozen juices on that turkey are immediately being converted into liquid,” Cutler said. “Water is heavier than oil, and oil floats on top of the water and the water goes to the bottom and it makes a violent reaction and the pot overflows. Once the grease overflows and it comes in contact with the flame, because we have it on top of a burner, and we will have a fire.”

The only thing the firefighters did right was place the fryer in the middle of a field away from structures. It is advised not to fry a turkey, or anything else, on a back porch or in a garage.

“Normally, when firefighters arrive to a fire like this, the whole porch or deck and other items are on fire,” Cutler said. “I would advise to talk with people who have previously fried a turkey before doing this for the first time.”

When it comes to frying a turkey, people need to make sure it is thawed out first. They need to pat it dry so that there is no residual water left on the outside of the bird.

Place the fryer on a flat, non-combustible surface at least 15 feet from the house or other structures. And test the oil level by filling the fryer with water first and putting the turkey in to see how high the water rises toward the brim of the fryer. This will let people know how much oil they need and will keep it from overflowing.

The chance of a house fire is more than three times the daily average on Thanksgiving Day. Cutler said cooking is the main cause of house fires on that day.

“It accounts for more than 73 percent of the blazes,” the chief said.

Other common cooking-related issues includes unattended cooking because people are easily distracted because more people are in the house at one time. It is easy to lose track of cooking times.

“People need to stay in the kitchen while they are cooking,” Cutler said. “Let the family know that until the food is done cooking and the equipment is turned off, do not leave the kitchen. We want everyone to have a safe Thanksgiving.” 

Green wants people to remember that Fairview Park Hospital’s emergency room is open 24/7 every day of the year.

“We have medical and healthcare professionals ready to serve,” she said. “We just want to remind everybody to be safe during the holidays.”