Fire Safety

MountainDon · April 20, 2008, 07:37:31 PM

from John (redoverfarm)

This is a rather loose fit in this category, might be better in off topics,

but I figured more folks wold see this here.

Do you know the best and worst methods to attempt to extinguish a cooking oil fire in the kitchen?

I never realized that a wet dishcloth can be a one size fits all lid to
cover a fire in a pan!

This is a dramatic video (30-second, very short) about how to deal with
a common kitchen fire .. oil in a frying pan. Read the following
introduction, then watch the show .. It's a real eye-opener!!

At the Fire Fighting Training school they would demonstrate this with a
deep fat fryer set on the fire field. An instructor would don a fire suit
and using an 8 oz cup at the end of a10 foot pole toss water onto the
grease fire. The results got the attention of the students.

The water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom where it instantly
becomes superheated. The explosive force of the steam blows the burning
oil up and out. On the open field, it became a thirty foot high fireball
that resembled a nuclear blast. Inside the confines of a kitchen, the fire
ball hits the ceiling and fills the entire room.

Also, do not throw sugar or flour on a grease fire. One cup creates the
explosive force of two sticks of dynamite. This is a powerful
message----watch the video and don't forget what you see. Tell your whole
family about this video. Or better yet, send this to them.

Adam Roby · September 20, 2014, 08:04:52 AM

I know this is a very old thread (too bad the link is no longer working) but had a hell of a scare last night, and realized I could have made things worse.

Damn near lost the house last night. Was having my Dad over for supper for his 74th birthday. Wife had picked up some meat and told me to BBQ it since she would be at work. There was a pack of pork and a pack of chicken... I was only going to make the pork but once I trimmed all the fat it looked a little skimpy quantity wise. The chicken was 4 thighs with the legs. They looked terrible, had a TON of fat on them. I trimmed off about 1 full thigh worth of skin and fan. Really didn't want to eat any of that gross looking stuff but figured if we ran out it would be a good idea to have some extra meat. First I BBQ'ed some potatoes and mushrooms in a pan while I was cooking the pork. The pork was just about done, I just wanted to give them a bit of color, so I took the big pan of potatoes off and threw on the 4 chicken thighs, closed the lid and came inside just to scrape the potatoes off the pan and into a bowl. Wasn't in for very long when I heard the dog freaking outside, went to the window and there was a billow of thick black smoke and flames coming out of the BBQ and licking the ceiling of the porch. I grabbed the BBQ and dragged it to the center of the deck where the roof is higher because of the /\ and opened the lid. I swear I have never seen flames that high before in my life. The deck was going to ignite any second... I ran for the hose, but the damn thing was all knotted and I couldn't pull it hard enough, actually tore the end off at the spout. Ran back to the deck, the fire was getting out of control. I grabbed the tongs and took the meat off the grill putting it on the shelves. I would have needed a 4 foot tong not to get burned, had no choice it was get hurt or lose the house. Ran back in and got a water bottle we use for ironing, came back out the flames came down a bit due to the chicken being off the grill. I began spraying... didn't want the grease to fly off the deck and catch the floor on fire... so probably best the hose didn't work out. Finally got it out. I was shaking... and had a pile of charcoaled meat sitting on the ledge of the BBQ.

We actually ate the pork... had no other options because by the time my Dad got here he needed to eat (diabetes) so we had that and my potatoes. Kept my hand on ice all evening. Missing all the hair on both hands, 1/2 my arms... my face was completely black from the soot... probably singed my face as well. Hand was pretty red, went pink by bedtime... this morning the color is pretty much normal but it feels very raw and looks a bit swollen. When I told my wife she said... "what chicken?". Apparently that chicken was not meant for the BBQ, it was to make soup for my daughter because she has a cold. That's why she bought such fatty meat... so not only did I ruin my Dad's b-day supper I also ruined my daughters lunch and supper for today. Ugh...

To make things worse, I had a fire extinguisher under the sink... took me a few minutes to find after my Dad suggested I buy one. We have baking soda but it is somewhere in the cupboard. Moral of the story, we should always keep the fire putter-outers close by when cooking or playing with any source of fire. It can get out of control so easily. I learned a valuable lesson... no more fatty chicken on the damn BBQ. It really is nice to have a roof over the BBQ for cooking in bad weather, but it also creates a major hazard in certain situations.

I was at least 2 hours before I could get the dog to come back to the house. She was hiding in the bushes crying... very traumatic evening for both of us. My daughter never noticed anything since she was inside playing.

September 20, 2014, 08:37:05 AM

Glad it worked out as it did and not worse. Hope your hand heals up okay.

John Raabe · September 20, 2014, 10:21:01 AM

Thanks for writing that up. A good lesson for all of us. A family fire drill or review of what to do and what to use is a good idea at least twice a year.

rick91351 · September 20, 2014, 10:48:00 AM

Adam thanks for sharing. I sort of bounce back in forth propane - charcoal. I was doing ribs one time and they went nuts on me. I was on charcoal - on an outside patio pit. Life was good - nothing flammable around and they caught fire and erupted. By the time I got a garden hose it was a lost cause. This was a long time ago when we lived in town. (I was not the rib cooker that I am now.) One neighbor was going to call 911. No! There is nothing their going to do! Can't even offer them any ribs now. GRRR!!! That is one of several reasons I never BBQ on a deck or under awning or never next to a flammable wall. Never ever one of those turkey deep fryers around anything like that. Grand kids and dogs keep away clear away. Put the Forest Service and BLM both on alert and pray there be no earthquakes and nothing frozen into the pot!!!

I have done my world famous to my friends and family ribs in snow and rain. If anyone is around on Christmas Eve stop by. Hey I mean it!! Never mind the wind, rain, snow sleet and hail..... I cook a mess of baby backs, a big pot of jambalaya more than enough...... Thinking of this year a Chicken and Smoked Sausage Etouffee

toss in some shrimp if the kids bring it up when they come. Toss out a spread with whatever anyone else wants to bring or fix. I started a tradition of sort of deep south southern fare which I love so so much. I do this over the Christmas Holiday sort of a present to myself - after all we live in Southern Idaho.

Point being I still do the BBQing outside and moved it clear away from the house. My little experience was nothing like you had happen - never anything as bad as what you had happened to you. I do see one problem trying that up here that would toss a monkey wrench in the works and if it should drop down in the the low teens and single digits or below.

Glad things worked out as well as they did!!! Keep a fire extinguisher close and a large spray bottle of water. Dumping water directly on the coals can and will cause scalding steam to rise. Going along with what John posted via MD I had a friend a trained fireman that had a mental moment when he entered a house seen fire in the kitchen hit it with a extinguisher it blew up. Cooking oil on fire on him and some one else. Was not a skillet on fire as reported but a deep well boiler in an old style stove.

Dave Sparks · September 25, 2014, 03:08:31 PM

I would say the lesson here is to have a very nice long set of tongs to get the meat out of the flames. It is one of the lessons of fire on board a vessel at sea. Get the source away from the flames. Lost a few chickens to Poseidon that way.

One way to mostly avoid these fires is lower temps and longer cooking times with 6 inches or more distance from the flame.

macyfort76 · September 26, 2014, 09:52:33 AM

Quote from: Dave Sparks on September 25, 2014, 03:08:31 PM
I would say the lesson here is to have a very nice long set of tongs to get the meat out of the flames. It is one of the lessons of fire on board a vessel at sea. Get the source away from the flames. Lost a few chickens to Poseidon that way.

One way to mostly avoid these fires is lower temps and longer cooking times with 6 inches or more distance from the flame.

I agree, when in doubt use extra long tongs!

Thanks for sharing MountainDon and Adam Roby. Too bad the video has been deleted but will definitely spread the word about this and, if it's okay, I'll link this to my blog. I'm new to this forum by the way and this would be my first post. I'll probably be reading through a lot of threads before posting again though.

Adam Roby · September 26, 2014, 05:36:56 PM

Yeah, in retrospect I actually had very short tongs. I am a computer programmer by day (mostly) and my wrists are paying for it. The longer tongs are harder to handle so I use rather short ones. I should keep a set of longer ones for emergencies. The worse part was opening the lid with the flames funneling out. Maybe the tongs could have served to help open the lid as well. A week later and my hand has healed, but it could have been much worse.