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."
