ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — In just a few days, we'll be gathered around the table with friends and family, giving thanks. For some people, before the food is served, a visit from the fire department is a last-minute addition to the day.
When you think of Thanksgiving, a big juicy turkey, endless sides, family members, and maybe some unwanted personal questions from your uncle are likely some of the things that come to mind.
For 911 telecommunicators and first responders, it's a day when they prepare for more calls regarding fires, burns, and other cooking-related incidents.
"We get a lot more structure fires, smoke in the oven from burnt turkeys. People burning themselves because they're not necessarily paying attention," Andrea Jordan explained.
Jordan has been answering 911 calls for 18 years and has helped people through just about every Thanksgiving day fiasco you can imagine.
While telecommunicators work to send first responders your way, they're also able to help you over the phone.
"We're able to give them life-saving instructions, we can give CPR over the phone, we can help deliver babies, we can help control bleeding, give people instructions," Jordan said. "Sounds kind of simple, but even just to get out of the house, when it is on fire. People want to gather their belongings and they don't necessarily think that they should get out. And we're there to remind them that it's important that they that they do those things."
Then, once that call ends, first responders take over your care. It’s on holidays that the fire department receives the most calls than any other day out of the year. And a lot of those accidents that happen are avoidable.
If you'd like to keep paramedics and firefighters off your holiday guest list, there are a few simple tips you can follow.
"Make sure somebody is near whatever you're cooking the entire time. Don't leave anything unattended," Captain Garth Swingle with St. Pete Fire Rescue explained.
Swingle also recommends having a designated cook, someone who is staying sober to make sure nothing goes wrong in the kitchen.
He explained that cooking-related calls on top of the normal calls first responders get on any given day typically make for a busy Thanksgiving.
"We have people that do burn themselves, fires that happen, anything involving anything with sharp knives, anything with having anybody around the cooking area, dogs, tripping hazards, kids," Swingle said.
A common call fire departments respond to during Thanksgiving is deep frying a turkey. For many, it's equipment that only gets used once a year, and isn't a process most are familiar with.
"Alright, when deep frying a turkey, first thing make sure you are completely prepared," Swingle said. "Make sure you have everything that you need, all the safety equipment that you need, the gloves, the goggles. Make sure that you keep the cooking at least 10 feet away from your house or a deck anything is going to catch on fire. Put it out by itself, and keep the propane tank about two feet away from the actual cooking before you start cooking."
Other simple tips to follow are to remove any tripping hazards from your home, make sure you don't have too many appliances plugged into a single outlet, and use timers to avoid accidentally overcooking or burning a dish.
If and when something does go wrong, call 911 and be prepared to answer a few questions as soon as your call is answered.
"The most important thing is to know where you are, especially since we have a lot of people visiting town, it's always important to know the address where you are. Secondary [would] be your phone number. If we do get disconnected, we need a way to call you back," Jordan said.
The fire department and telecommunicators shared that oftentimes a situation is made worse because people wait to call 911 and try to handle it on their own. If you're facing an emergency on Thursday, call 911 immediately and let first responders help you through it.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.