Chapter 8 Play It Safe! 151
cloth or silicon. See 8-4. Choose
pot holders that are large enough to
protect your hands. Cloth pot holders
and mitts that are too large may touch
the surface unit and catch fi re. If you
use cloth pot holders or mitts, be sure
they are thick enough to protect you.
They should be dry, too. If they are
damp, the water in it heats up when it
touches a hot pan. The heated water
can burn you.
• Serve hot foods with care. A ladle,
tongs, or serving fork can help you
transfer hot food to plates or cups.
Pot holders protect your hands
when carrying containers of hot food
to the table. Avoid reaching into a
hot oven. Instead, use a pot holder
to pull the oven shelf out. Then you
can remove the pan.
• Close the door of a hot oven as
soon as you put food in or remove it.
People, especially young children,
may touch the open door and get
burned. Also, never use the oven to
heat the kitchen.
• When you are fi nished cooking, be
sure to turn off the surface units
and oven. Keep in mind that some
surface units can stay hot for a long
time after they are turned off. Even
though surface units don't look hot,
they can still cause a burn.
• Water from the faucet can be very
hot. Carefully test it before putting
your entire hand in it. You may need
to adjust the faucet to make the wa-
ter cooler.
To Prevent Fires
Every year, fires and smoke kill many
people. Fires leave a large number of
families homeless.
For a fire to start, three ingredients are
needed: fuel, heat, and air. Fuel can be
paper, cloth, wood, gas, or food. Oil and
fat are two foods that burn very easily. Fuel
cannot burn without heat. A match, electri-
cal wire, oven, surface unit, or cigarette can
provide heat. Fires need oxygen from the
air to burn.
If any one of these three factors is
missing, a fire cannot burn. You can
prevent or stop a fire by removing the fuel,
heat, or air. The following points can help
you prevent fires.
Don’t overload outlets. Most circuits are
designed for two plugs. Overloaded outlets
can become hot enough to burn. They are
a major cause of electrical fires.
• Store matches and lighters in a
secure place. Keep them out of the
reach of children.
8-4 8-4
These oven These oven
mitts are made of silicon. They are mitts are made of silicon. They are
fl exible and protect your hands from fl exible and protect your hands from
burns. burns.
Discuss: How would following guidelines about closing the oven
door and turning off the oven and surface units affect energy use
as well as safety?
Enrich: Invite a fi refi ghter to speak to the class about fi re
prevention.