City Shares Thanksgiving Tips

The City wishes you a safe and pleasant Thanksgiving. We are grateful to live and work in this community.

Most City offices will be closed Thursday, November 23 and Friday, November 24, 2023, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

This schedule does not affect Police, Fire, emergency services, Library, recreation programs, community centers, water and wastewater treatment plants or the Waterfront Department.

Water, sewer, and trash bill payments can be mailed, left in the night drop box at City Hall, or paid online at Santa Barbara Utilities Online.

As we prepare to gather with loved ones, the City Fire Department urges the community to keep fire safety top of mind, especially when there’s a lot of activity and people in the home. As you start preparing your holiday schedule and organizing that large family feast, remember, by following a few simple safety tips you can enjoy time with your loved ones and keep yourself and your family safe.

• Stay home and close to the kitchen while food is cooking. Most fires in the kitchen occur because food is left unattended. Obviously, you can’t stay in the kitchen the whole time the turkey is in the oven, but if you’ve got burners or the broiler going, you should be there.
• Keep the range free of clutter. Don’t overload a range top with too many pots and pans.
• Keep children and pets away from the cooking area.
• Never disconnect the smoke detector while cooking. Remember that smoke detectors save lives.
• Keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and know how to use it. Make sure the fire extinguisher is rated for grease fires and electrical fires and read the directions carefully.

In the event of a fire, never pour water on a grease fire. That can cause it to spread. And never carry the pan outside—you could spread flames throughout the house. If you have an oven fire, immediately turn off the heat and keep the oven door closed.

Call for help. If you can’t immediately extinguish the fire yourself, leave your home, call 9-1-1 and wait in a safe place until emergency personnel arrive.

Fire officials say that Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires with more than three times the daily average for such incidents.