AUSTIN, Texas — On Tuesday, the Austin Fire Department (AFD) gave a demonstration on the dos and don'ts when it comes to deep frying your turkey.
"When you are going drop a turkey into a deep fryer, you want to make sure you have only enough oil to actually cover that turkey – not enough it’s going to splash over that edge once the turkey is inside of it," said Lt. Angela Martin.
Nationally, the AFD said there were around 1,400 fires reported to local fire departments on Thanksgiving Day in 2019.
“You want to make sure you only do the temperature that is rated for that particular fryer, which is never going to be something like 500 degrees, and you want always have that turkey completely thawed. Usually it takes about three days in the fridge to fully thaw a turkey," said Lt. Martin.
The AFD said fryers are usually between 300 and 400 degrees, but said to check the correct temperature for your particular fryer.
Lt. Martin always recommends having a fire extinguisher on hand just in case.
"Try to coat the surface area and extinguish it," Lt. Martin said. "You are going to be separating the flammable liquid from the oxygen on the top of it. [That] is basically what you are trying to do with one of these types of extinguishers."
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