Phoenix Fire: Know what you’re doing before frying a turkey
Nov 19, 2015, 11:01 AM | Updated: 11:10 am
(Screenshot)
(Screenshot)
PHOENIX — With Thanksgiving just a week away, Phoenix firefighters spent part of Thursday morning demonstrating how easily frying a turkey can go wrong.
Deep frying is a popular way to cook turkeys, particularly in Arizona with its good weather.
But not everyone knows what they’re doing with this method. Firefighters in full gear dropped a frozen turkey into the hot oil of a deep fryer.
A wall of heat of 350-plus degrees shot out of the fryer in all directions, reaching as high as 25 feet outside of Phoenix Fire Station 18 at 23rd Avenue and Camelback Road.
“Basically, it’s like a bomb,” Phoenix Fire inspector Brian Scholl said.
“It creates a bunch of steam, which creates a boilover and the flame below the pot catches everything else on fire,” he said.
Scholl said homes have been lost and people badly burned simply from popping frozen turkey into hot oil.
Other dangers they see involve fryers being knocked over by kids playing around them. Cooking requires adult supervision from beginning to end.
