Every year, there are dozens of home fires due to cooking a turkey around Thanksgiving time.

Tuesday the Idaho Falls Fire Department helped drive safety into the minds of everyone by dropping a partially frozen turkey into a vat of hot oil to see what would happen.

Now is the time people are pulling out their fryers in hopes of getting a great tasting turkey.

Piper Phynnie/KBear 101: "We've seen a lot of You Tube video's and stuff and I've actually heard that a lot of people in Idaho and with Thanksgiving right around the corner - I would hate to see people lose their homes."

Piper Phynnie from KBear 101 worked with the fire department to setup a demonstration of what could happen if you aren't taking all precautions this Thanksgiving.

Piper Phynnie: "Hopefully a lot of fire - hopefully its going to be big because we want to make it as real as it possibly can be."

Jeff Parsons/Idaho Falls Fire Department: "4300 fires will happen on Thanksgiving this year and fifteen people will die in those fires."

Jeff Parsons with the Idaho Falls Fire Department knows people are still going to fry a turkey despite the dangers.

Jeff Parsons: "First and foremost you want to make sure your turkey is completely thawed and dry before you fry it. Any water that gets put into the pot gets instantly converted to steam and tends to make oil boil over and flame up."

Here you can see the fire department didn't fill the vat to the top with oil.

Jeff Parsons: "Just put the turkey in there and fill it up with water until it just barely covers the turkey and then you know exactly how much oil to put in there."

And finally - don't cook it in the garage or home...believe it or not, some people do that.

Jeff Parsons: "A great place is your back yard."

If you don't follow these instructions...the results could be more than you're willing to pay.

Piper Phynnie: "Yeah, just be careful so you can have a safe and happy holiday."

It's far safer to cook a turkey in the oven, but hot grease can still pose a problem even then. It's best if you use a sturdy metal roasting pan to use instead of the flimsy aluminum pans.