Some people get upset to see their efforts of creating a delicious homecooked meal go up in flames. Others already have a habit of laughing at their misfortunes and quickly reach for their phones to share pictures with everyone online. There are times, however, when these blunders quickly shift from funny to downright scary and grow into major accidents that might have alarming consequences.

You see, cooking is such a regular activity, we tend to forget that high temperatures can easily cause a fire. A report by The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) states that from 2014 to 2018, cooking was the leading cause of reported home fires and fire injuries.

"Cooking caused an average of 172,900 reported home structure fires per year (49 percent of all reported home fires in the US)," NFPA wrote. These fires had dire outcomes that resulted in 4,820 civilian injuries — that's 44 percent of all reported home fire injuries. The good news is that the vast majority of the reported fires were relatively small.

The most common cause of all of these incidents was unattended cooking. Moreover, clothing was the item first ignited in some of these fires, and cooking oil and grease fires are a substantial part of this whole problem.

The report also showed that an average of 470 cooking-related fires were reported per day in 2018, and the peak days were Thanksgiving and Christmas.

According to the Beaumont Emergency Hospital, two-thirds of all domestic fires start in the kitchen, and 350K people are injured by kitchen knives every year, with the most common accidents being burns and lacerations.

They shared that if you want to prevent such massive disasters from happening, always stay in the kitchen while cooking. Other safety advice would be to keep a fire extinguisher close by and make sure your smoke alarm is properly working. Since clothing or paper towels can quickly catch fire, you should keep any potential fire hazards away from stovetops.

It turns out that people can avoid most cooking accidents by keeping everything clean and organized. Beaumont Emergency Hospital stated that simply decluttering and preventing distractions can go a long way. "Keep the dog (or cat) out of the kitchen, remove pesky throw rugs, don’t use the telephone while cooking, and keep your children away," they wrote. "Clean up kitchen spills as they happen. You don’t want to slip on it later."

Well, after scrolling through this list, it's no wonder why so many people continue to preach "safety first". And when you have it all figured out, you can start learning valuable tips that could improve your skills and help you out with your cooking.

Ellen Manning, freelance journalist, writer, and founder of the Eat With Ellen blog, talked to Bored Panda in a previous interview about the biggest cooking mistakes amateurs make. In her opinion, it's not planning and preparing properly, and not allowing enough time.

"Even the very best chefs make sure everything is prepared in advance, and they know how much time they need to execute certain dishes," Ellen added. "If you're less confident, it's even more important to do this and to build in a bit of extra time so you're not rushing and getting stressed. I've ruined many a meal because I tried to rush, didn't read the recipe in advance and get everything ready, then ended up trying to do too much in too little time, which inevitably causes mistakes," the blogger revealed.

Luckily, there are plenty of easy-to-follow cooking tips that can up your culinary game right away. "Take time to read the recipe, to check you've got the right ingredients, and to plan what you need and what you'll need to do," Ellen suggested. 

"This is even more important if you're cooking several dishes at the same time. There's many an adage that says 'perfect planning prevents poor performance' — or words to that effect — and it's no different in the kitchen."

Whether you want to prevent mishaps or generally want to know some small steps to help you improve your cooking, Ellen has you covered. "If you're making a complicated dish, get everything chopped up, measured out, and weighed in advance. This will help," she advised.

"Also, try to clear up as you go along (or get someone else to do it). Tidy workspace, tidy mind, and all that. It will keep you organized and calm if you're not working in chaos."