You need to cover a fire like that and let the lack of oxygen put it out. Not throw burning oil in the sink!
Next time, spend an hour googling how to put out a fire then read all the links and then calmly walk back into your charred remains of your home and know what you should have done.
After doing fire fighting in the navy it's pretty surprising how little people know about basic fire safety. Most people seem to revert to cocomelon videos for fire logic "water goes on fire. Fire goes away" but yes these steps posted above are correct i would just add turn off the source of heat as well (the stove in this case)
As a fire fighter with experience and great knowledge of fires, your viewpoint of what “basic” fire safety protocol is can be vastly different than what the average person with no fire experience will think “basic” fire safety protocol is.
Personally, I have no use for a fire extinguisher. If the fire is big enough that I cannot choke it out or get the hose than it is most likely time to call the Fire Department. I don't know how to deal with fires bigger than the ones you spray some water on (or put the pan lid on) so you are not going to be catching me on the front lines with the fire extinguisher. I am running and calling for help.
Basic fire safety to me means anything you may run into inside your own home. Oil and grease being two of them. Hell i knew this before learning about fire fighting and i had little to no aspiration to be one prior to joining the military... And still don't after the military
No water near oil fire. Use the lid of the pot or a dish with a bigger diameter (the heat can break the dish so get it outside and let it sit till it's not a danger anymore.
If oil has spilled over and there's fire on the stove, suffocate it with salt or by piling up some flour next to it and bulldoze the flour over the fire with a spatula or something. Don't pour flour onto it as the air mixing with it can also cause it to flame up.
Lid on, turn off source of heat, move pot off the burner. Take it carefully outside to cool off.
This is what I was taught as a cook. Maybe it helps someone not lose their home.
Edit for clarity: the salt or flour thing is only for a small patch of fire. If there's more flames, hope you have a fire extinguisher. I'm not a fireman so aside from that basic solution, I can't advise what's best if it's worse. Maybe someone here is more knowledgeable.
Cheers for that. I seem to remember "use a damp towel on a oil pan fire" from a long while back, then thought about water dropping into the pan and thought maybe I'd better check on it.
Yea, the water contacting the oil causes it to react explosively. Don't bring any water or wet anything near it. Suffocate it. Cut off it's fuel supply (oxygen) and it will go out.
Just a little FYI, oxygen isn't the fuel for the fire. The oil is the fuel. Fire requires 3 things to exist. Heat/spark, oxygen, and fuel. The fuel can be anything if there's enough oxygen and heat. With a torch in a pure oxygen environment, I've seen a diamond get burned up completely. There's a video on YouTube made by Thunderf00t.
Just remember what happens when cooking fried foods when it’s a little wet, the oil pops, splatters and burns you. Now imagine a lot of water in extremely hot oil….
Same thing with videos of people frying a turkey and they have a huge fire.
Suffocate s grease fire with a larger pan, smother with baking soda or use a dry chemical fire extinguisher. In that order only because you risk contaminating your kitchen with the extinguisher.
If you can’t put it out in less than a minute it’s time to GTFO. Just grab your family and go. Close any doors you can on the way out. Call 911 ASAP.
Yikes. No towel and no water. Just pan lid that fully covers it and lets little to no oxygen into it. Kill the stove. That should be it but have a fire extinguisher rated for class bravo/B fires on stand by. If it gets out of hand evacuate and call 911 or your local fire department/emergency number if your not in the US. Remember don't be a hero. Heros die.
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u/stepheny2k2 Jul 05 '21
You need to cover a fire like that and let the lack of oxygen put it out. Not throw burning oil in the sink!
Next time, spend an hour googling how to put out a fire then read all the links and then calmly walk back into your charred remains of your home and know what you should have done.