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

[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.