Released 11/08/2017
Firefighters are sharing their recipes for serving up a delicious meal and staying safe in the kitchen in a new campaign launched today by Minister for Police and Emergency Services Mick Gentleman.
Mr Gentleman said the ACT Fire & Rescue Kitchen Fire Safety Cooking Challenge was a great initiative to help deliver very important kitchen fire safety messages to the Canberra community.
“Statistics show a third of fires in the ACT actually start in the kitchen,” Mr Gentleman said. “Over the past three financial years ACT Fire & Rescue has attended 749 residential structure fires across Canberra. Of those, 248 were caused by people leaving cooking unattended.
“This is why ACT Fire & Rescue has chosen to run this ‘Kitchen Fire Safety’ campaign. It’s very important Canberrans understand the vital importance of fire safety in the kitchen.
“Don’t Stop Looking While You’re Cooking is an important message we want the community to understand. The campaign we’ve launched here today is all about reinforcing that message while, at the same time, having some fun, getting to know our firefighters and learning a few fantastic recipes.
Four ACT Fire & Rescue operational platoons have nominated the best cook and best recipe to be judged by the Canberra community.
“From today ACT Fire & Rescue will post a Cooking Challenge episode weekly on its Facebook page and the ESA website,” Mr Gentleman said.
Once the fourth and final video is published, the public will be asked to vote for their favourite recipe on the ESA website. Everyone who votes will go into a draw to have an ACT Fire & Rescue crew and fire truck come to their home for a free fire safety inspection. The draw will be broadcast on Facebook Live on Friday 8 September.
“Firefighters will also be visiting local shopping centres throughout the campaign to talk to people about kitchen fire safety and hand out some free tea towels, wooden spoons, magnetic notebooks, bags and balloons, all of which will feature kitchen fire safety information,” Mr Gentleman said.
- Statement ends -
Mick Gentleman, MLA | Media Releases