How To Keep Yourself and Your Guests Safe on Thanksgiving

You may encounter several risks while planning or hosting large family gatherings during the holidays — from cooking fires to foodborne illnesses. While your homeowners insurance policy may help cover the expenses associated with property damage and liability claims, it’s better to take Thanksgiving safety precautions to avoid costly mishaps in the first place.

Check out the rest of this article for 10 Thanksgiving safety tips that can help you kick off a fun holiday season while keeping yourself and your loved ones safe.

On This Page

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  What Are the Most Common Home Hazards on Thanksgiving?

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  How To Stay Safe on Thanksgiving

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  Does My Standard Home Insurance Policy Cover Thanksgiving Accidents?

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  How To Get Home Coverage for Your Thanksgiving Get-Together

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  Thanksgiving Safety FAQs

What Are the Most Common Home Hazards on Thanksgiving?

Fires and food poisoning are two of the most prevalent hazards on Thanksgiving. Home cooking fire rates are more than three times higher than average on Thanksgiving.^[1] Meanwhile, one of the most common bacteria responsible for food poisoning is tied to popular holiday foods — like turkey and roast beef — with outbreaks of the bacteria occurring most often in November and December.^[2]

Other common hazards to watch out for on Thanksgiving include the following:

• Slipping and falling
• Choking on food while talking around the dinner table
• Getting into a car accident as many drivers hit the road to head to their family meals
• Spreading infectious diseases as several people gather in potentially small and cramped spaces to eat together
• Accidentally cutting yourself with a kitchen knife and subsequently getting infected
• Injuring yourself while playing football with friends or family members

How To Stay Safe on Thanksgiving

Read through the following sections for several tips to stay safe on Thanksgiving, which can help you protect your family and lower the odds that you will need to file a homeowners insurance claim.

1. Clean Your Home and Test Your Alarms

Before guests come over on Thanksgiving Day, make sure there aren’t any loose rugs or stray items — like toys — that people could fail to notice amid a crowded house and trip over. Likewise, if you spill anything in the kitchen, clean it up promptly so no one slips and hurts themselves. You may also need to salt icy walkways or take similar steps to prevent slip-and-fall injuries outdoors, especially if you live in an area with very cold weather.

In addition, it’s important to protect against the risk of an unnoticed kitchen fire by making sure your smoke alarms are working properly before you start cooking the Thanksgiving meal. If the alarm barely makes any noise or doesn’t go off at all when you press its test button, you may need to replace the batteries in your smoke detector.

2. Stay Alert and Present in the Kitchen

Considering how common holiday fires are, you need to be especially vigilant while cooking on Thanksgiving. For example, you shouldn’t leave the kitchen if you’re actively cooking on the stovetop, nor should you leave the house if you’re cooking a turkey or anything else in the oven.You should also pay extra close attention if you end up cooking multiple different foods at the same time.

Try to keep track of how long each dish has been cooking so you don’t overcook anything and risk having a dish catch fire.

3. If Deep Frying, Do It Outside

If you intend to deep fry the turkey for your Thanksgiving dinner, it’s recommended that you do so outside on a flat surface away from any structure on your property or anything else that is flammable. Also, make sure that the turkey is completely thawed before you begin frying it to lower the risk of a fire or explosion.^[3]

That said, the National Fire Protection Association advises against using turkey fryers altogether.^[1] Among the various types of cooking equipment involved in indoor residential fires, deep fryers were responsible for the second-highest number of deaths and injuries per 1,000 fires from 2017 to 2021.^[4]

Deep frying a turkey is particularly dangerous when it requires a large amount of oil that becomes extremely hot. If you overfill the fryer, oil could spill out once you put the turkey in, potentially scalding anyone nearby or even causing the entire fryer to burst into flames. As a result, it’s recommended that you buy a turkey that has already been fried if you would like to serve fried turkey at your Thanksgiving meal.^[1]

4. Keep Children Away From Stoves, Fires and Cooking Areas

Children should stay at least three feet away from the stove while you’re cooking to avoid potential burn injuries. Even if the flames are under control, kids still risk being burned by boiling water, hot gravy or any other liquids that could splash out of a pot. Similarly, you should make sure children don’t have easy access to matches or lighters and avoid leaving them alone in any room with a lit candle.^[1]

5. Have What You Need To Put Out Fires

A fire extinguisher is generally the best tool for preventing a kitchen fire from expanding into a full-on house fire, though you may also be able to smother small fires with baking soda. Alternatively, if the fire is contained within a single pot or pan, you may be able to put it out by turning off the stove and covering the pot or pan with a metal lid to deprive the fire of oxygen.^[5]

Keep in mind that you should never pour water on a grease fire — instead of extinguishing the flames, the water will vaporize and expand, pushing the burning grease outward and causing the fire to grow even larger.^[5]

Remember that it’s important to be careful while cooking on Thanksgiving because of the high risk of starting a fire. Cooking caused about 74% of Thanksgiving fires in residential buildings from 2017 to 2019. In comparison, cooking fires only accounted for about 51% of residential fires on average across all other days during that time span.^[6]

6. Make Sure Candles and Fires Are Never Left Unattended

Whether it’s an indoor candle or an outdoor bonfire, you should always have an adult present to keep an eye on and tend open flames. Otherwise, a child could easily hurt themselves by tripping and falling into the fire. Also, children and pets can cause significant property damage by knocking over candles and starting house fires — if left unattended.

While it’s crucial to make an effort to practice fire safety on Thanksgiving so you can hopefully prevent a fire-related catastrophe, you should also consider having an emergency plan in place so the guests at your Thanksgiving gathering will know how to react if a fire does break out. For example, you may want to discuss evacuation routes for each room in your house to ensure your loved ones understand how to escape in the event of a fire.^[7]

7. Cook the Thanksgiving Turkey Thoroughly

To avoid foodborne illness, you should cook your turkey thoroughly, using a food thermometer to make sure it has an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit before you serve it. In the same way, reheat any side dishes you cooked in advance until they have an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Other steps you can take to mitigate the risk of food poisoning on Thanksgiving include the following:^[8]

• Washing your hands thoroughly before cooking
• Avoiding cross-contamination between raw meat and foods that have already been cooked or don’t need to be cooked — such as fruits and vegetables
• Refrigerating perishable leftovers within two hours of cooking them

8. Avoid Giving Pets Leftovers or Bones

Be careful about giving leftovers to your pets, as many common Thanksgiving foods can pose a risk to an animal’s health. For example, you may not want to feed your pet the fat portions of the turkey since animals may have a hard time digesting fatty foods. Though dogs often love to chew on other kinds of bones, avoid giving them poultry bones because these can splinter and damage a dog’s digestive tract.^[9]

9. Keep Knives and Sharp Utensils Out of Reach or Put Them Away

Knives and other sharp utensils should always be stored high up or, at the very least, in a place where children can’t easily reach them. If you aren’t actively using a knife, consider putting it away, as even adults can jab or cut themselves on misplaced knives amid the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving Day festivities.

10. Secure Your Home if You’re Going Out for Thanksgiving

If you are going to someone else’s house for Thanksgiving, you can keep your own home safe by taking steps like installing a home security system, locking windows and doors or leaving the lights turned on to make it seem like someone is home. You may even be able to set up a smart home device so that your lights will turn off automatically at a certain time — in case you plan on being out late.

Meanwhile, if you’ll be traveling out of town on Thanksgiving, consider hiring someone to house-sit for you or asking a friend or neighbor to pick up your mail and packages while you are away. It’s also helpful if you leave a vehicle parked in your driveway while you are gone. In general, the less obvious it is that no one is home, the less likely it is that your home will be the target of a burglary.

Does My Standard Home Insurance Policy Cover Thanksgiving Accidents?

A standard home insurance policy provides coverage for several perils that could damage your home or belongings on Thanksgiving, including fire, smoke, explosions, vandalism, theft and water discharge from home appliances. In addition, the personal liability or medical payments coverage portion of your homeowners policy may pay for medical treatments if a guest is injured on your property.

It’s also worth noting that homeowners insurance can cover damage to your home and belongings caused by a vehicle — in case multiple people are driving to and parking at your house on Thanksgiving. Conversely, damage to your car caused by another vehicle should be covered by either the at-fault driver’s liability car insurance or your collision auto insurance.

How To Get Home Coverage for Your Thanksgiving Get-Together

To find the best and most affordable homeowners insurance policy available before the holiday season begins, you need to contact at least three to five different insurance carriers for quotes. Be prepared to provide information like the age of your home, the condition of its roof, your address and the number of people living in your household.

While reaching out to insurers one by one is time-consuming, you can speed up the process by using an insurance marketplace, such as SmartFinancial. Fill out our questionnaire about your coverage needs and budget, and we can get you in touch with multiple insurance agents who can offer you quotes for customized home insurance policies. To get started on receiving free home insurance quotes, click this link.