In which our heroine fails to burn down the entire apartment block.

[agoodwinsmith]

But it was close.

Yes.  I was heating up the oil to cook the onions, when I discovered that I was out of noodles and started hunting for the rice.  I already had the fan on and the door open, so the first thing that caught my attention was this hissy spitty noise of very hot oil.  I (one can see the stove from my seat in the living room) looked over and saw roiling smoke blackly roiling.  I hustled over, freaking out, turned off the burner, and drew back my hand just as the oil burst into flames.  Argh.  I did not scream, I said incoherent oh golly rats whatever things in an agitated manner, which failed to catch the attention of my Stanley-Cup-series-playoff watching SOGP.  Even as I did it, I knew that I shouldn't do it because supposedly it only spreads the fire madly, but I thrust the flaming pan into the sink and turned the water on it.  It did indeed not go out straight away, and the flames leapt up, but the amount of oil was only enough to coat the bottom of the pan, and so the steady onslaught of colder water eventually vanquished the flames.  There was soot on the backsplash and the bottom of the cupboards above the sink.

I am amazingly lucky.  There were all sorts of flamable things beside the stove - bread bags and spice packets and like that - and beside the sink was the wooden knife rack, and a piece of paper towel and like that.

I promise not to do stupid again.

Strangely, the smoke alarm, which freaks out over a tiny whiff of slightly singed toast, never said a thing.  There was roiling - there was actual *soot* - nada.  Huh.

Comments

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

I swear that smoke alarms exist only to comment on my cooking. Last week I burnt some sugar water I was making to feed the hummingbirds [1]. There was thick smoke hanging down to within a metre of the kitchen floor yet the smoke alarm was silent. This evening I took the rack of lamb out of the oven and the alarm started wailing about the invisible whisps of smoke therefrom.

[1]1/4 C sugar, 1 C water. Bring to boil and allow to cool. Do not forget about it for half an hour, thus allowing it to burn into a crusty, foamy, sticky, carbonised toffee-like substance. Your pot will never be the same afterward.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

I should add that I've always had the thought in my head that you're supposed to slap a lid on such a flaming oil fire, starving the fire of oxygen. That is if you can depend on the lid to fit tightly. Baking soda is supposed to be another good fire putter-outer.

I guess the trick is to remember these before you get the pan under the tap. Of course it could have been so much worse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAgptNEZ7vg).

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

I've used baking soda, and it works well - but I didn't have it to hand. Also, I hadn't taken the lid out of the cupboard. If the oil had been deeper, under the sink would have been a bad idea, I think. Usually I take the smoking pan outside to the balcony, just to get it away from the smoke alarm - but I just could not feature running through the apartment withe a flaming pan. Singed eyebrows would have been the least of my worries. :)

That't it: big tub of baking soda is going beside my stove.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

I like the systems they have in restaurant kitchens. A huge honkin' big dry chemical extinguisher the size of a hot water tank lurks in a back room and extends tentacles with nozzles above every possible source of flame in the kitchen. If a fire breaks out, pull the pin and run. Or risk being buried in fire-fighting powder.

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

Glad you're okay.

Staples had small kitchen fire extinguishers on sale during whatever month was Fire Prevention Month, and so did a lot of other places. They're very small, about the size of a can of non-stick cooking spray or something.

I have one on the counter near the stove because I am 1) generally more safety minded than a whole troop of scouts, and 2) prone to losing interest in my cooking and wandering off.

Baking soda is good, but a little hard to apply--might consider looking for one of those little jobbies--they're point and spray, and pretty much made for exactly that.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

I will look for one - point and shoot sounds about how much thought I could actually fit in my head at that time. :)

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

That's why I would recommend it. Fighting fires in full equipment is scary enough, but when one is happening on your stovetop, it's much easier to depress a button than "open the box! scatter! scatter! dump!" and you really don't want to be closer than you have to be to flaming oil or things like that. Baking soda's great, but the packages aren't meant for dispensing it in that fashion for emergency reasons.

[thomaszahr.livejournal.com]

wowa - than glod that worked out - where's the fire blanket when you need it?

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

...er... :)

[cat63.livejournal.com]

Eek! I'm glad there was no serious damage done.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you - me, too. :)

[ciciaye.livejournal.com]

Eeep! Glad it wasn't worse!

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you - me, too. :)

[randombler.livejournal.com]

Very glad to hear you are OK, and no more harm done than a little soot.

In the UK it is common to have a fire blanket in the kitchen for exactly this problem. It is just a flameproof blanket (fibreglass, I think) which you chuck over the fire and starve it of air. Mine have sat in kitchens for years and never been used - but they do no harm, just get dusty.

One thing to remember is, once used, leave for half an hour until all is cool.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Fire blankets are not a common item here (I've never seen them advertized, or at a store offering fire extinguishing options), and I suspect I would either have buried it in my clutter, or very carefully put it away and forgotten where it was.

Fire Blanket

[randombler.livejournal.com]

They come in a container which you screw to the wall, with a handle hanging out so you can quickly pull them out when needed. I would just have to remember that ours is behind the kitchen door, where it is not terribly visible.

Maybe they are more common in the UK because of our national obsession with the deep fat frier. We don't have one, but many families have chips with everything. And, maybe twenty years ago, such friers were somewhat prone to bursting into flames and were blamed for a lot of fires. Nowadays they are pretty safe - but memories linger.

Re: Fire Blanket

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

I remember reading about those fires - "chip pan" - which seemed like a shallow afair, but must have been pretty deep and full of oil. Brrrr. Because of my tendency, like esmereldus, to wander away in mid-cook, I have resisted the temptation to get a deep-fat fryer machine.

I will look for the blanket thing.

[khitomer.livejournal.com]

Please do not do this again. Understand, I don't care a fig for you. I'm merely being selfish as a lack of April's blog to read would make my day less interesting

Seriously, glad you were not toasted.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Sir! Yes, sir! :)

Me, too - and I am very glad that I did not have to explain to my neighbours that I was the one who was responsible for putting them out on the street in the rain with nothing to their names but the clothes on their backs. Not a social situation was has practiced for, strangely enough. :)

[moustachios.livejournal.com]

Argharghagle. I'm relieved to hear you're okay, and that the building is, too.

Does the fire alarm need new batteries? Or was it just playing dumb?