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Check Fire Insurance Policy Before Deep Frying Your Turkey

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Thinking of deep frying your Thanksgiving turkey? Might want to think twice.

A three judge panel at the Texas state fair awarded a top food prize for a Thanksgiving dinner of stuffing, turkey and cream corn, rolled into a ball and deep fried. What's not to love?

If you're thinking of deep frying any part of your Thanksgiving meal, you should know that deep fryer fires cause an average of 5 deaths, 60 injuries, and more than $15 million in property damage each year, according to the National Fryer Protection Agency.

Since this is a legal report and not a medical report, the lesson about deep frying is that you need to look at your fire insurance policy because, while most residential fire insurance policies cover the home's structure, built ins like cabinets and flooring, against fire damage caused by lighting, electric, and cooking (even for the annual national stupidity known as the wrongly used deep turkey frier), note what isn't covered: the contents of your house, like furniture and clothing may or may not be covered and even policies that do cover contents often cover what you paid when you bought them, not what it will cost to replace.

So BEFORE it's too late, check the first page of your policy which says what is covered - you don't want to lose irreplaceable memories like a photo album in a fire created in your zeal to fry up new memories.

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