All Episodes

October 7, 2025 14 mins

Cozy season is upon us! And that means candles, comfort food, and ALL of the decorations. But the same things that make your home feel festive can also create fire hazards. This episode takes a closer look at everyday hazards that can spark the most common types household fires, as well as simple steps you can take to prevent them.

We're shaing an unforgettable story of a kitchen grease fire that spiraled into a five-acre forest blaze (with a startled dog caught in the middle), and a few more real-life examples that show just how quickly “harmless” habits can become dangerous. From overloaded outlets to draped lampshades, pumpkin spice candles to Christmas tree lights, we’re unpacking the risks that show up in homes like yours and ours every fall and winter.

Most importantly, you’ll walk away with practical prevention tips you’ll actually remember: how to safely smother a grease fire, why cutting the third prong off an extension cord is a terrible idea (please don't do this), what your smoke alarms are really trying to tell you, and how to check doors for heat before making a safe escape.

Whether you’re decorating for Halloween, hosting Thanksgiving dinner, or stringing up twinkle-lights for the holidays, this episode will help you stay cozy, safe, and fire-free. After all, the best way to celebrate is by making sure the only thing glowing is your holiday spirit.

What you'll hear in this episode:

  • Grease fire survival tips you’ll actually remember
  • The “dog on fire” story (and its fiery aftermath)
  • Why your cords, candles, and decorations may be riskier than you think
  • The space heater features that can help keep your home safe
  • Smoke alarm safety tips

Send us a text

Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jimmy (00:00):
What's happening?
It's your boy, jimmy, withanother Life and Safety Podcast,
and with your girl, megs.
Hello, today we're going to betalking about fire preparedness
week.
Yeah, nice, so firepreparedness.

Megan (00:18):
Fire prevention week.

Jimmy (00:19):
Oh, fire prevention.
Okay, I was thinking ofpreparedness.
I was like we've talked aboutpreparedness so much so fire
prevention.
Don't play with matches.

Megan (00:31):
Which, to be clear, you can't see this, but he is in
fact playing with a box ofmatches as we speak.

Jimmy (00:36):
Well, they were to be fair.
They were in the office forsome reason, and I don't know
why they're here and they'rewaterproof matches and I wanted
to look at them, um what do wefeel about them?
They seem cool, they'reactually really sturdy, like you
know, like you'll break it oh,that's a solid, that's a solid

(00:59):
match yeah, and then, like theflame part on top is it's like
it's a wax covering on it Prettycool.
Those are the strike on the box.
Matches too.
It's always kind of nice.
And as far as fire preventiongoes, it says caution, keep out

(01:19):
of reach of children.
I would prevent children fromplaying with matches anyways.
Just not, don't let them touchit.
Yeah, that's just good.
And the first time in my wholelife I just put a match back in
the box without lighting it.
Oh, amazing, fire preventionweek.
Hey, what do you do?
Don't start the fire.

Megan (01:40):
Don't start the fire and you know, I think that fits in
really nicely to the theme thatwe were joking about.
But I would argue the best wayto prevent a fire is not be a
dum-dum.

Jimmy (01:54):
Don't do dumb things, yeah, so, like you've heard in
some of the earlier podcasts,like some fires have started,
you know lighting, lizards onfire, you know lighting, you
know know, matches in an openfield um this wasn't you, but
you know a dog catching on firecatching on fire so uh yikes and

(02:17):
then running around andcatching everything else on fire
so let's we should probably putthat in the context yeah,
that's probably one that weshould probably put that in the
context.
Yeah, that's probably one thatwe should discuss.
So if your drip pan or yourgrease pan catches on fire on
your range, you know, first offyou should be watching it and it

(02:39):
shouldn't be that high.
But you know, accidents happen,life happens.
It's all good For sure, forsure, all good.
First thing you should alwaysdo is turn off your range if you
can, um, move the heat off theburner or the pan, excuse me,
off the burner, if you can, orso you're removing the heat two
different ways and then wealways smother it.

(03:01):
Pan Baking powder or bakingsoda, not baking powder.

Megan (03:11):
Mm-hmm.

Jimmy (03:12):
Right.
So baking soda in therefrigerator you old folks
remember that you take a bowl ofbaking soda and open it up in
the can Gives the refrigerator asmelling nice.

Megan (03:22):
Mm-hmm.

Jimmy (03:23):
So if you pull it out of the refrigerator, you can use it
.
If you pull it out of thecupboard, you probably shouldn't
use it.

Megan (03:30):
Fair On that note, or a lid on the pan, if you have that
the lid works.

Jimmy (03:35):
Great Flour, mm-hmm.
You know, if you use the wholebucket of flour, so to speak,
it'll work.
If you just use a handful offlour, it's like you're
traveling through the flunetwork in Harry Potter, don't I
go on LA?
It just flies up everywhere.

(03:56):
So you have to be careful withthat.
So this grease pan catches fire.
This homeowner takes it, whicha lot of homeowners do.
They'll never throw it in thesink and never throw it out the
back door, mm-hmm.
Or through the sliding glassdoor.
Yeah, lots of times peopleforget to open the sliding glass

(04:19):
door and then their housecatches on fire.
Oh no, because they just lookthrough the glass, right yeah,
and it's just everything's onfire.
Oh no, they just looked at theglass, right yeah, and it's just
everything's on fire.
Oh wow.
This particular situation isthe person opened the door,
threw the hot, flaming greaseout and it landed on their poor
pooch and the poor dog caught onfire While the dog was running

(04:43):
around putting itself out.
We actually put the dog out,but it was running around.

Megan (04:48):
Typically the dog survived and was fine.

Jimmy (04:50):
The dog was fine.
We don't tell the story if thedog didn't live.
I feel like that's an importantthing to preface the story with
live.

Megan (04:54):
I feel like that's an important thing to preface the
story with.

Jimmy (04:58):
Started a five-acre forest fire, but the dog did
survive.
It was all good.
Long candy life.
So fiber vision, don't throwhot grease outside.

Megan (05:14):
Or on animals yeah.
Don't catch animals on fire,yeah or don't move on grease.

Jimmy (05:21):
How about that?

Megan (05:22):
that's a good one better.

Jimmy (05:23):
That's a good one.
Yeah, a lot of times peoplethrow that in the sink and then
water and yeah, and lots oftimes people have curtains over
their sink.
Oh true, yeah, bad juju there,bad bad juju Now.
Other fire prevention things isusing or overloading extension

(05:47):
cords.

Megan (05:47):
Oh, it's a massive one.

Jimmy (05:49):
Yeah, if you chain a bunch of cords together, it
could be an issue.
A lot of the new extensioncords have fuses in them or
ground fault indicators, so ifit does go to ground or doesn't
work right, it'll shut itselfoff.
Never cut the third prong offyour extension cord or any other

(06:15):
power cord you have, becausethat's the ground.
Yeah, if you mess that up, theycan actually arc and bad things
can happen.

Megan (06:23):
I didn't know that people did that, oh yeah.

Jimmy (06:27):
Yeah, people do that, especially with people with
older homes and they might havemaybe the two-prong outlet and
they're like, oh, I have thisextension cord.
It's easier for me to cut thisextension cord than to change
outlets or go to a better outletor something like that.

Megan (06:43):
Makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't do that.
Another big one is decorations.
Yeah, I was looking at the FDNY.
Oh, no, fd and F Help me.

Jimmy (07:03):
NFPA.
Yes, I didn't know if you weretrying to say FDNY, no NFPA.

Megan (07:11):
The National Fire Prevention Association.
I was looking at their websiteand they say that decorations
are going to be one of thebiggest.
But it's a help me.
Fuel, thank you, starts thefires.

Jimmy (07:30):
It's like we're playing charades over here.

Megan (07:33):
I know, except my charades is just hitting my hand
over and over.
I speak, meg, don't worry aboutit.
Oh potential fire hazards, butlike decorations, you know,
especially as we're moving alonginto, you know, October,
Halloween.
You know corn stalks, crepe,paper, dried flowers, things

(07:54):
like that, and as we travelalong into Thanksgiving and
Christmas, all of those, youknow, the more dried things you
bring into the house you know,those are super flammable and
you know, especially nownowadays, candles, you know you
got the pumpkin spice candlesGross, yes, well we know you got
the pumpkin spice candles Gross.

(08:14):
Yes, well, we know how you feelabout cinnamon, but I think I
read somewhere that December isthe time of year where most
candles are lit.
But, as you know, we get intothose fall, autumnal months and
winter months.
We definitely see an increasein candle usage, which is also a

(08:37):
I'm spiraling.
Did you say autumnal?

Jimmy (08:41):
Yeah, Like autumn, autumnly months, autumn months.
Yeah, I mean, obviously autumnturns into winter, right?
Yeah, yeah, it's getting colder.

Megan (08:56):
The lights are, you know, darker out out, so all those
things are happening for sure.

Jimmy (08:59):
but, yeah, decorations are gonna be.
Yeah, decorations are a bigdeal.
Um, yeah, you know candles.
Um, I don't want to offendanybody, but I know there's a.
I don't want to offend anybody,but there's a.
I'm not going to say what oreven try to guess what.
There's a region I want to seeas the Norwegians or something
like that, or they decoratetheir Christmas trees with

(09:21):
candles and it's really prettyand really cool.
It's beautiful.
I've seen it.
Yeah, like online, yeah, but ifyou don't know how to do it and
you're not doing right and youdon't manage it, that's a big
deal.
Right, that's everything onfire, to your point.
The decorations.
I just watched a video I don'tknow how old it was, but

(09:44):
somebody sent it to me A familycelebrating Hanukkah and the
candles got knocked over and litthe table on fire.
So these are all things thatdefinitely could happen as far
as decorations go on holidays.
So just make sure that you'reaware of the surrounding areas,

(10:15):
of the surrounding areas, um,you don't know.
Like, if you have a candle,make sure you don't have, you
know, drapes around it thingslike that.

Megan (10:18):
Don't leave it unattended , especially not near children
or animals all those are greatthings.

Jimmy (10:26):
um, the other thing people like to do is like put,
like you know, um cloth overlamps, like to dim the lamp a
little or something like that,make a cool ambiance or whatever
.
Um, try not to do that,especially because the light
bulbs get pretty hot.
Yeah, um, that can happen.
Um, now, real quick, if you dohave to leave or run out because

(10:49):
you're I don't know whatevercatches on fire, you're leaving
the fire prevention thingsdidn't work.
Make sure you check the doorsfor heat.
Don't forget the fire alarmgoing off.
Always check at the top of thedoor, because heat rises and
then it starts to sink becauseit's compartmentalized.
So check the top of the doorfor heat and in the middle of

(11:11):
the door.
Never go straight to the doorhandle Door handle's bad To the
top.
If it's hot and the middle ofthe door is warm, you probably
can't go out that door.
If the top of the door is warmand then the middle is cold, if
you will, or lukewarm, and thebottom is lukewarm, you could
probably go out that door.

(11:32):
You're probably going to haveto crawl.
You have to crawl, you know.
Remember the fire's hot.
It radiates a lot of heat.
Yeah, you know, mike showed methis video this morning of a
vase being thrown at fires and Iwas like that's no chance.
Those people are standing waytoo close to those things.

Megan (11:52):
Yeah, it was an ad for some fire prevention thingy or
other.
In the vase it looked like itwas double-walled and had some
sort of chemical in it.
And I saw it and I was like Ihave to show this to Jimmy.
There's no way this is real.
Saw it, I was like I have toshow this to jimmy.
There's no way this is real.
Um, but it's like you knowsomething, like you have to use
a whole fire extinguisher on afire.

(12:14):
You know the size of a trash,can.
There's no way that a smalllittle vase is gonna knock out a
fire.

Jimmy (12:19):
That's big yeah, I mean they do make these fire grenade
things where it's a chemicalreaction and it explodes.
Air cold explodes and it putsthe fire out.
It works really good in likedumpsters, but you have to kind
of like stand far from it.
Yeah, you know, you gotta like,you know, shoot it like kobe,

(12:39):
you know go into it, kind oflike.
In the video you showed me theywere like standing right next
to it and I was like no, yeah,that would hurt.
They would look like flinching.
Yeah, you know.
So, um, hopefully you know,just kind of think about some
fire prevention stuff.
Don't overload your outlets.
Space heaters space heaters isa big one, you know.

(12:59):
Make sure you get a spaceheater, that you do have a space
heater.
It falls over, it beeps at youor turns itself off.
I know those are some safetyfeatures.
Now Try not to leave oneattended.
Don't throw blankets over them.
Try not to cover your heaterbins too high.

(13:21):
Especially, give the old schoolvents in the floors.
Okay, be cautious of yourdecorations this year for your
autumnly months Smoke alarms,yeah, scarecrows, things like
that.
And you know, when the timechanges, change your batteries

(13:43):
and your smoke alarms.
There's some big, high-levelthings there.
Have a plan, have a fireextinguisher and be safe Peace.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.