Cooking safety key to curbing Regina house fires: chief

Regina’s fire chief is backing up findings from a recent study on the leading cause of house fires in the city.

The study, released Tuesday, found 39 per cent of house fires were caused by cooking accidents. It was conducted by The University of Regina and the city’s fire department.

“It has to do with careless cooking activity, so one of the biggest contributing factors to that has been unattended cooking,” fire Chief Layne Jackson said.

Jackson was one of the firefighters teaching students about safety at the legislative building Thursday, in an effort to prevent future tragedies.

“We can encourage these children as they grow up … if they are cooking, to make sure that they are monitoring that cooking.”

Some of the other findings in the study indicated newcomers to Canada and the elderly were more at-risk for accidentally starting kitchen fires.

Jackson said the department is working with these groups, and has started programming to help teach safe cooking practices.