BRITAIN CAMPAIGNS AGAINST DRINKING AND FRYING

LONDON (AP) -- For hungry drinkers just home from the pub, the government
has a salutary warning: Don't drink and fry.

Tipsy people frying late-night meals are to blame for many of the house
fires that kill about 40 people each year, the government said Monday as it
launched an advertising campaign warning of the danger.

"Chip-pan fires are the single largest cause of casualties in house fires,"
said Home Secretary Jack Straw, who suffered "a severe shock" when a pan
caught fire about 15 years ago at his London home. "They are devastating in
their effects on human lives and damage to property."

Straw hastened to add that he was sober when his fire occurred.

Some 4,600 people are injured each year while trying to fry chips, or
french fries, the government's Health Education Authority said. More than
30 percent of injuries from chip-pan fires occur between 10 p.m. and 4
a.m., and men are twice as likely to be casualties as women.