A Thanksgiving week cooking accident could have been much more tragic when a turkey fryer exploded inside a North Carolina residence.
The fryer was left unattended with the person operating it fell asleep, according to Burlington, N.C., authorities.
“And that is dangerous,” Daniel Shoffner, chief of emergency medical services for the Burlington Fire Department, told WAVY.
The explosion of the fryer’s propane tank was so strong, it blew out the back windows of the home. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the explosion.
An average of 1,600 cooking-related fires happen each year on Thanksgiving Day, according to numbers from the U.S. Consumer and Product Safety Commission.
“There’s more house fires due to unattended cooking, or cooking incidents, on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year,” Shoffner said. “We want people to stay safe this holiday season… You know, be cautious when you’re cooking, if you are using a turkey fryer with oil or anything else.”
Experts caution that a turkey should never be fried indoors and that the fryer should be at least 10 feet away from anything flammable.