SALT LAKE CITY — It’s the scene in a Norman Rockwell painting: The family is over for Thanksgiving and the house is crawling with little kids. Friends, family and food create a heartfelt and festive environment — a shield of warmth against the shivering temperatures outside.

But with the bustle of bodies come potential dangers: So many bodies in the kitchen can create conditions that don’t happen the rest of the year, and children often want to be where everyone else is: right around the stove.

Nobody wants to spend the last half of the holidays in the hospital, caring for the child with burns all over their body. No parent wants to even imagine their child pulling the oven door down, stepping up and causing burning grease to spill.

If you prefer to keep your family safely cocooned inside your home instead of spending time at the hospital during the holidays, here are a few tips to help you do just that.

Anti-tip bracket

Home inspectors will often check for an anti-tip bracket. It’s a simple piece of metal that attaches both to the floor and to the back corner of your stove, and it usually costs just a few dollars. This little miracle prevents the stove and oven from tipping over on your children when they try to climb.

Anti-tip brackets are required for newer homes, but home inspectors everywhere will tell you that their installation is iffy: often they are either not installed at all or they are not connected to the oven. You can check yours by trying to tip the oven forward — if it catches the bracket, you’re good. If not, you have a task to do.

Turn pan handles inward

Let’s face it: 3-year-olds are as excited about going over the river and through the woods as grandma is about having them come. And the excitement doesn’t end when they get to the grandparents for the holidays. If the action is around the stove, that’s where the little kids want to be. And what’s boiling? Let’s pull the handle down and see! When this scene happens, the whole family will finish the holiday in the emergency room.

The lesson of course is to make sure pan handles are pointed toward the back of the stove, well away from curious fingers.

Use the back burners

It seems intuitive to use the front burners as the default cooking surface: it’s closer and more convenient for the cook. It’s also closer for children. If the back burners are on and the front burners are off, there is more of a safety factor for children, according to a Parents.com article. A child may touch the top of the oven as an attempt to climb or to “see” — and if the front burners are off, finger burns are much less likely.

Know how to put out a grease fire

Are you prepared for a grease fire? You may be aware that if there is a grease fire, the last thing you want to do is throw water on it. Water causes the grease fire to blow up, spattering burning grease everywhere. It can change a pan fire into a whole kitchen fire in a matter of seconds.

For a grease fire, try salt, soda or better yet, just make sure you have a fire extinguisher handy. If you don’t have one, it’s time to do some holiday shopping. Just make sure you do it before the kids come over.

Never leave foods unattended

The National Fire Protection Association reports an estimated 162,400 home fires involving cooking equipment per year. These fires caused a yearly average of 430 deaths, 5,400 injuries and over $1 billion in property damage. What is the primary cause of these casualties? Unattended food.

You can imagine the scenario: bacon in the pan but the cook has to go to the bathroom. While in there, he realizes that there’s no toilet paper. After washing his hands, he goes to the basement to get toilet paper. Then he trips over Johnny’s toys and then starts moving the toys over to the corner where they belong. After a minute doing that, he notices a smoke smell in the air — it takes him a minute, but then he realizes the problem: the kitchen is on fire. Now it’s time to evacuate the house.

Oven lock

Want to keep your toddlers from inspecting the turkey in the oven? Would you like to keep them from using the oven door as a step stool? A simple oven lock can be just what grandma — and the doctor — ordered. These are simple and inexpensive, and a great way to avoid that dreaded trip to the hospital.

Keep your family safe for the holidays, and make sure that your memories for the holidays are always merry and bright. We can’t always have a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving, but we can at least avoid the ER.

Garth is a home inspector, podcaster, broadcaster and long-time contributor for KSL.com. To master your mansion, visit www.masteryourmansion.com and www.crossroadsengineers.com. Listen for Garth soon at BYU Radio, Sirius channel 143.

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