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Kids in the Kitchen: Teaching Fire Safety

Kids Kitchen SafetyTeaching kids how to cook can be much more than just a fun activity they’ll enjoy eating afterwards; it’s also proven to be tremendously helpful for other aspects of their learning skills. Many schools are incorporating cooking into their curriculum, since they find it’s a great way to keep kids’ attention.

These are some of the skills a child can fine-tune, simply by following a basic recipe:
• Math- measuring, weighing, counting, shapes and fractions.
• Reading- vocabulary and reading skills.
• Nutrition- where food comes from, how it’s grown, how food changes through the cooking process, sensory exploration.
• Motor skills- chopping, whisking, kneading, pouring.

However, one of the most important things that cooking can teach children is the importance of safety and responsibility in the kitchen. In 2012 alone, approximately 360,000 children nationwide were injured from burns or scalds, and with shows like Junior Iron Chef that make cooking something exciting and competitive for children to watch and emulate, ensuring kitchen safety is more important than ever.

Here are some tips to keep your junior chef injury-free:
• Turn off all appliances before leaving the kitchen.
• Keep appliances away from water.
• Do not pour water onto a pan with hot oil; the oil can sputter and cause burns.
• Hold burns under cold water immediately to reduce severity.
• Do not pour water onto a cooking fire, since it can make it bigger. Keep a fire extinguisher nearby and call 911 if flames start to leap.
• Turn pot handles to the back of the range top, and keep all towels and materials away from the stove burners.

For more information on how to keep your family safe while cooking, and your home fire-free, check out our website at: https://guardianssistg.wpengine.com/

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Braille Institute Launches New Kitchen Confidence Program

kitchen confidence Kitchen safety is always on our mind, and we’d love to congratulate the Braille Institute for reintroducing their Kitchen Confidence Program, which offers free cooking, nutrition, and safety classes for the blind and visually impaired. The program is supported by the Elaine F. Stepanek Foundation, and is taught by full-time, home management instructors who also help develop curriculum to support healthy eating on a budget and healthy habits to monitor cholesterol and sugar levels, as these conditions have been shown to affect eye health.

The Kitchen Confidence Program inspires blind and vision-impaired adults to be more self-sufficient and responsible with their health, and also allows them to consider the kitchen a safe and manageable place.

Here are some of the fantastic features the program offers:
• Integrates mobile and assistive technology with common kitchen appliances and utensils. Technology such as mobile tablet workstations replay audio instructions and enlarge text as needed, to aid people with low vision.
• Uses a specially created teaching kitchen with stations for gas and electric stove tops, ovens, microwaves, and other small appliances.
• Is included as part of the Braille Institute’s core set of free classes (Other example offerings are classes in living skills and getting around town).
• Teaches low vision adults to create nutritious meals, grocery shop, safely use knives and kitchen appliances, organize and manage a kitchen, and avoid and handle injuries.

Eventually, the Braille Institute hopes to expand their program to include virtual classrooms, thereby enabling them to reach larger numbers of blind and vision-impaired adults, and empower them to feel safe and confident in the kitchen. Take a look at the Institute’s website to see what else they’re up to, and always remember to practice safe cooking habits in your own home too! For more information, contact Michael Lazarovits, Executive Director of Braille Institute Santa Barbara at 805-682-6222.

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Devastating Fire Brings Important Safety Tips

In the aftermath of the devastating home fire in Brooklyn on March 21st that left seven children dead and their mother and sister in critical condition, it’s important to remember how preventable so many of these kinds of tragedies can be. The American Red Cross has determined that every day, approximately seven people die, and 36 are injured in household fires across the nation. Of those statistics, two out of every five home fires began in the kitchen.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has tried to bring the issue of home fire safety to the forefront with educational materials and classes, but “people have a general complacency about fire,” says Lorraine Carli, a spokesperson for the NFPA. No one seems to think it will happen to them. In 2013 alone, 85 percent of all fire deaths in the United States occurred in the home, however, and cooking is the number one cause. The Brooklyn fire is believed to have begun due to a malfunctioning hot plate that was left on overnight in the kitchen. However, firefighters at the scene also noted that there were no working smoke detectors on the home’s first or second floors.

Here are some tips to help prevent kitchen and home fires to share with your household:
• Never leave cooking unattended. In more than 30 percent of kitchen fires, unattended cooking was a factor. If you leave the kitchen, be sure to turn burners off.
• Keep towels, oven mitts, food packaging and anything else that could catch fire away from the stove top, and do not cook in loose-fitting clothing that could get too close to burners or oven heat.
• Check on the food you’re cooking regularly to ensure pan oil isn’t too hot, and use a timer to help monitor food’s progress. Also be sure to keep cooking areas clean and clear of buildup and crumbs that could overheat and catch fire.
• Always maintain working smoke detectors in every level of your home, and ensure that batteries are replaced when needed.

For more information about how you can keep your home and family safe from kitchen and household fires, connect with us today at https://guardianssistg.wpengine.com.

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GuardianSSI Exhibiting at NAFED Annual Conference

GuardianSSI Exhibiting at NAFED Annual Conference
2015 Conference May 14 – 15 in New Orleans

Guardian Safety Solutions International, Inc. (GSSI), the leader in the development and manufacturing of range top fire protection systems, is exhibiting at the National Association of Fire Equipment Distributors (NAFED) Annual Conference and Expo, May 14 – 15, at the Astor Crowne Plaza, 739 Canal Street, New Orleans (booth #405).

NAFED’s guiding mission is gathering and disseminating information that improves the world’s fire protection and increase the fire protection industry’s competence. This high-impact, high-energy program highlights the challenges being faced by distributors throughout the nation while sharing critical insight as to the opportunities these challenges bring to equipment manufacturers, sales representatives and related industry professionals.

Protecting families worldwide since 1985, GSSI’s mission is to develop and distribute quality safety products that provide customers with peace of mind, while protecting lives and property.
“We are excited to demonstrate our ‘Guardian Solution’ range top suppression system at NAFED,” said Paul Rouse, GSSI’s administrative officer. “This is extremely important as there are 34,000 kitchen fires each day in the U.S. causing more than $7 billion in damage every year.” He added that more than 12 million unintentional home cooking fires go unreported causing 640,000 injuries annually.

hi res Guardian IIIGSSI manufactures the Guardian III Model G300B, UL and ULC listed with a fuel shut-off. “The Guardian is designed to detect and extinguish cooking fires and prevent re-ignition in private homes, apartments, senior housing, college campuses, hospitals and other facilities. Even older kitchens can be retrofitted as well,” Rouse said. (See how the Guardian works here).

Once it detects heat at a pre-determined temperature, the Guardian sends a signal to release an extinguishing agent that suppresses the fire. Guardian will also shut off the gas or electric supply to the stove in order to prevent reigniting.

The design of the system offers:
• automatic operation
• continuous 24-hour protection
• concealed installation
• easy clean-up
• proven reliability

For more information, contact GSSI at 800-786-2178 or visit www.guardianssi.com. “Like” on Facebook and follow on Twitter @GuardianSSI.

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