It’s National Fire Prevention Week and this year the focus is on home cooking safety.

The Findlay Fire Department says cooking fires are the leading cause of home structure fires in the United States and in Findlay.

Fire Inspector Eric Wilkins says some cooking safety tips are, be alert, stay in the kitchen when cooking, and keep anything that can catch on fire away from the stove.

And if you do unfortunately have a cooking fire, don’t be a hero and fight it yourself, call 911 and the fire department will come out and extinguish it.

If you do fight a cooking fire yourself Eric says you need to be aware that water reacts badly with grease and will make cooking fires worse.

He says to turn the heat supply off and also eliminate the fire’s oxygen supply by putting a lid on top of it.

If that doesn’t work, he says to use an extinguisher on it.

“But, in any event, you should give us a call anyway, we will come and make sure the fire’s out, don’t feel like you need to be the hero.”