South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue (SYFR) have criticised Asda for promoting the use of chip pans in the February edition of their Asda Magazine.

As part of a promotion for national chip week (Feb 20-26) the supermarket giant placed an ad encouraging readers to buy its £12 chip pan.

The fire service were outraged and pointed to figures showing 500 accidental house fires caused by chip pans since 2007, in South Yorkshire alone. These fires led to two deaths and over a hundred injuries.

Nationally in 2010/11 cooking appliances were the biggest cause of accidental fire, with 19,663 fires caused, but smokers materials resulted in by far the greatest number of fatalities (96).

Asda however, have apologised.

Speaking to regional newspaper The Star, a spokesperson said, “The Asda Magazine team would like to thank the South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue for pointing out our oversight.

“They have our word we won’t promote chip pans in the future.”

This will be of some comfort to fire chiefs, but underlines the importance of continuing to remind the public that chip pan fires are dangerous.

Head of community safety Diane Malpass said, “It’s perhaps hard to believe, in this day and age, that people still use chip pans. But our data shows they remain a real and present danger. You wouldn’t fill a container with flammable liquid and light a flame under it, yet using a chip pan poses the same kind of danger.

Asda may have apologised, but chip pans remain a recommended a product on their Asda Direct website, with a recommendation from Asda chef Simon Shaw.

He writes in the product description, "If I'm cooking chips, it has to be a chip pan. It's how I get my chips golden brown and crisp on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside.”

For SYFR however, the advice is simple: “Oven chips or thermostat controlled fryers are much safer, meaning there is no need whatsoever for people to continue putting their lives at risk.”