NFPA Journal - September/October 2020 - 48

Research by Birgitte Messerschmidt

THE GLOBAL
VIEW ON FIRE
RESEARCH

Slow Burn
WHILE COOKING FIRES RARELY MAKE HEADLINES, THE GLOBAL LOSSES
ADD UP TO A PROBLEM THAT DEMANDS OUR FULL ATTENTION

nderstandably, large
pot and left it heating on a stovetop.
disasters with a signifiEventually the oil ignited, causing a
cant number of casualties
flame with a height of almost 1 meter (3
usually receive the most
feet), tall enough to reach combustible
attention from media and
cabinets above the stove. The heat release
researchers. When those events occur,
rate of the cooking oil fire was more than
researchers mobilize to find out what
three times as intense as a fire caused by
went wrong and why, so that codes and
igniting the same amount of gasoline in
standards, if necessary, can be updated to
the same size cooking pot.
prevent them from happening again. As
So, what can we do? One option is
a result, catastrophes with high numbers
to require the installation of home fire
of fatalities are rare in countries where
sprinklers, which can control the fire
standards are continuously evolving.
or even extinguish it. Another potential
While this approach has many posisolution is to prevent fires from happenEven as the US has
tives, it also contains some major blind
ing in the first place by incorporating
reduced fire deaths
spots. To our detriment, researchers and
cooktop ignition prevention technolin almost every major
the public tend to overlook the smaller,
ogy. That was the aim in 2014 when the
category, cooking
everyday incidents that may impact only
Fire Protection Research Foundation
fire deaths are worse
a few people at a time, but can add up like
led a project sponsored by NIST on the
a million papercuts into a huge societal
potential effectiveness of various technoltoday than they were
problem. The most prominent example
ogies to reduce cooking fires. The work
30 years ago.
is home cooking fires, which is the theme
informed the technical basis for changes
of this year's NFPA Fire Protection Week.
to UL 858, Household Electric Ranges
While deaths, injuries, and property loss
Standard for Safety, to prevent cooktop
from cooking fires have become a major
ignition during unattended cooking.
global problem, the topic gets relatively scant attention.
While the change to UL 858 was a great step forward, it
Amazingly, even as the United States has reduced fire-re- applies only to electric coil cooktops, and therefore only
lated deaths in almost every major category, deaths from addresses a part of the problem. In China, Japan, and South
home cooking fires are the exception-they are worse today Korea, however, research, standards, and regulations have
than 30 years ago. According to the latest report from NFPA focused more on gas-fueled cooktops. Information from Japan
Research, between 2014 and 2018 an annual average of 550 indicates that deaths from cooking fires were reduced by almost
people died in the US due to fires started by cooking, making 40 percent in the five years following the introduction of reguit the second-leading cause of home fire death behind smoking lations on gas cooktops. Other countries should take notice and
materials. By comparison, between 1980 and 1984, 500 people look at adopting similar lifesaving measures.
died from cooking fires per year. What's more, cooking is now
We need to act with urgency-the 10-plus people who die
the leading cause of both reported home fires and home fire every week in cooking fires are people whose lives can be saved.
injuries in the US. We have to do better.
These fires deserve our attention, and they require researchers
Recent research performed at the National Institute of working with industry leaders to develop technologies, stanStandards and Technology (NIST) emphasizes the significant dards, and regulations that will make this scourge a thing of
hazards from unattended cooking, which is the leading cause the past.
of cooking fires, according to NFPA. Researchers put 150 grams
of cooking oil (about 2/3 cup) in a 9.7 cm (3.8-inch) diameter Birgitte Messerschmidt is director of the Applied Research Group at NFPA.

MICHAEL HOEWELER

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NFPA Journal - September/October 2020

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