The Real Cost of Burning Toast

We all enjoy a piece of warm toast, often with a nice cup of tea, but unfortunately toast and burnt toast in particular has become something of a menace for Mid & West Wales Fire and Rescue Service (MAWWFRS) over the last year.

Did you know that 60% of all house fires start in the kitchen through unsupervised cooking?

Smoke alarms are fitted to give an early warning of fire. It doesn’t help if the batteries are taken out of bleeping smoke detectors because you keep burning the toast and other food – it could lead to tragic results.

MAWWFRS responds to a large number of incidents generated by fire detection systems. Analysis of statistics for the current year shows that around 20% of these calls are to business premises where the cause is found to be smoke from burnt toast.

The sensor of a standard smoke detector cannot distinguish between the smoke caused by burning toast to that from other fires. Many people attribute false alarms to smoke detector malfunction. In reality, most of them are the fault of people who either leave cooking unsupervised or take the batteries out of their smoke alarms. If you take the batteries out of the smoke detector, you’ll have no warning of a developing fire due to burnt toast.

Burning toast can also be a problem in the workplace and can cause huge disruption to the workforce. It often leads to people having to evacuate their place of work and stand outside getting wet and cold, not to mention the loss of production and money. If the incident is reported to the Fire and Rescue Service, it not only results in a financial cost but more importantly, attending fire appliances are unable to respond to more serious emergencies.

Head of Business Fire Safety, Group Manager David Phillips said “We strongly urge premises managers to review their policies regarding cooking on premises. Matters that arise due to burnt toast and other such foodstuffs should be dealt with before they become a serious issue which reaches the Fire and Rescue Service.

It cannot be good practice to allow repeated and unnecessary disruption to business when all that is required is for a simple review of internal procedures to address this issue. If employers are going to allow their employees to use toasters and microwaves outside of kitchens, they need to ensure the designated areas are fit for purpose and have suitable fire detection arrangements in place.

Calls to burnt food-stuffs generate a significant number of incidents each year and the figure could be significantly reduced through careful thought and suitable fire detection”.

For further information and advice please contact the Business Fire Safety Department at BFSdept@mawwfire.gov.uk