Cheyenne Fire Urges Cooking Safety This Thanksgiving [VIDEO]

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and Cheyenne Fire and Rescue is encouraging people to add fire safety to their turkey day menus.

"Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires," said Prevention Chief Byron Mathews. "There's a lot going on (and) we want to make sure that people are aware of their surroundings and most certainly paying attention to what they are cooking."

According to the National Fire Prevention Association, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 1,760 home cooking fires on Thanksgiving in 2015, nearly four times the amount they respond to in a typical day.

"You've got a lot of people in the house, you're having different conversations, you may not be giving that full attention to whatever you're cooking -- so that number being higher on Thanksgiving is attributed to that," said Mathews.

"Other fires that occur on that day are the turkey fires," he added. "Folks are not necessarily properly thawing that turkey, they may have the fryer to full of oil (or) it may be too hot."

Mathews says regardless of how you choose to cook your turkey, you'll want to "do it in the safest manner possible."

"Take those few extra minutes, cook and then converse," said Mathews.