Warning issued on turkey fryers

At Tasty Q Barbecue in Southwest Los Angeles, Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times of the year for deep-fried turkeys.

It is a specialty at the Crenshaw Boulevard eatery, and on Wednesday workers were preparing dozens of turkeys for cooking in a vat of boiling oil.

“Here you buy and we fry, or you can buy one of ours,” said Tasty Q worker Donna Morrison. “Is it dangerous? Sure, if you don’t know what you are doing. Anything can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

The Los Angeles Fire Department is so concerned about that potential for danger that it has issued a warning, urging people to “think twice” about deep-frying turkeys in their own home.

Under the heading “Your Turkey or Your Life,” the Fire Department released an advisory and video on its website saying that the cookers used to prepare the popular Southern dish can be harmful.

“Deep-fat fryers are extremely dangerous because of the hot oil used to do the cooking,” said Ron Myers, a Fire Department spokesman. “You can never recover from a hot oil burn. It melts the skin. A child or adult who is burned with hot oil will be disfigured for life -- or suffer a fatal injury.”

Some fryers, he said, easily tip over, spilling the hot cooking oil, and other brands frequently overfill when the turkey is submerged in the oil. Any small amount of oil coming into contact with a burner can cause a fire.

The sides, lid and pot handles get dangerously hot, and the fryers can overheat to the point of combustion, Myers said.

The Fire Department recommends that turkey fryers be used outdoors, on a solid, level surface a safe distance (at least 20 feet) from buildings and flammable materials. They should never be used in an enclosed space, on a wooden deck, under a patio or in a garage.

The turkey should always be completely thawed before cooking. In addition, the cooker should never be left unattended and a fire extinguisher should always be kept nearby. (Never use water to extinguish a grease fire.)

Underwriters Laboratories, the international company that tests products for public safety, offers its own words of concern:

“There is no turkey fryer that carries a UL mark on it,” said John Drengenberg, the company’s consumer affairs manager in North Brook, Ill. “The products have improved over the years, but they have not advanced to the point where we feel comfortable authorizing the use of our mark.”

Ultimately, he said, the problem is that there are “gallons and gallons of boiling oil, and if it gets out of control it is difficult for the average consumer to control.”

The National Fire Protection Assn., a nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to reducing fire hazards, discourages the use of outdoor, gas-fueled turkey fryers.

“They have a significant risk of burns and fire,” said spokeswoman Lorraine Carli. “More cooking fires occur on Thanksgiving than on any other day of the year -- three times as many.”

Despite his own warnings, Myers doesn’t suggest that the deep-fried turkey be abandoned.

“I do it every year,” he said. “The taste is fantastic. It’s moist, not like eating a piece of bacon. No oil in it at all.”

Myers compares deep-fry cooking to driving a race car at 170 mph: “If you are on the street it is very dangerous, but if you are on a racetrack and taking the proper precautions, it is perfectly safe.”

For Leroy Ross, owner of Tasty Q, the Fire Department’s advisory makes perfect sense -- in terms of safety and his own economics.

“I wouldn’t advise just anybody to go and do it,” said Ross, who has been in the barbecue business for more than a dozen years. “That’s what we do.”

john.mitchell@latimes.com