A CAMPAIGN to improve cooking safety has revealed there were 102 kitchen fires in Lancashire last year.

The county's fire and rescue service have been running the ‘Cook Safe’ campaign since January 2018.

In October, it launched phase two of the campaign, ‘Keep it Clean, Keep it Clear’ to address the problem of ‘cooker clutter’ aimed at raising awareness of just how often fires start with the accidental ignition of items stored on cooker hobs or in ovens.

Now the service has revealed that in 2018 there were 102 cooking-related accidental house fires across Lancashire

Of those, 22 involved a pan on or food left on the hob or in the oven, 31 involved items stored on or in cookers accidentally turned or left on, 10 involved microwaves and 19 involved dirty cookers.

There were also several where people fell asleep whilst cooking.

Jane Williams, the service's Prevention and Protection Support Manager, said: "There was one incident in Burnley involving a cooker which had pans, boxes and towels stored on the hob which were ignited by turning on the wrong dial on the cooker.

"Turning on the wrong cooker dial is so easily done. Many fires would be easily prevented if people took heed of the 'Keep it Clean, Keep it Clear’ message.

"The good news is cooking fires have been decreasing over the years. In 2017 there were 453 cooking-related fires in the county."

Oswaldtwistle county council and fire authority member Cllr Peter Britcliffe said: "This is good advice to make your kitchen safer."