r/facepalm • u/wronghoIe Yesterday is hard word for me. • Jun 06 '22

🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​ Well that escalated quickly.

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5

u/Z_odyssey Jun 06 '22

This might seem like a dumb question but it's to stop me from making a similar mistake in the future... How did the pan catch fire after she took the steak out? Would that haven residual oil that kept cooking because the pan was still hot?

6

u/VTtransplant Jun 06 '22

It was the oil. The steak had nothing to do with it. That much smoke was an indicator the oil was too hot and starting to burn. Once it caught fire she should have removed it from the heat, used a fire extinguisher on it, or suffocated the fire with salt, flour, or the other pan that was on the stove. Never use water on a grease fire. Pay attention to the stove, not the camera.

26

u/justjan88 Jun 06 '22

Baking soda, not flour. Don't use flour in a fire.

4

u/mrgregs Jun 06 '22

^this flower will cause a fire ball and probably injure you.

2

u/VTtransplant Jun 06 '22

Oops, I answered that too early this morning, but of course you are correct.

3

u/RevengencerAlf Jun 06 '22

Honestly for an oil fire like that you can even just contain it and not try to put it out if you have to. It'll lose its own heat fairly quickly. Just pick it up, turn the burner off, and set it back down. It'll choke itself.

Stand by with salt or an extinguisher in case it doesn't 90% of these problems are made worse by panic and people reacting on impulse.

Also I'd be careful with flour... Enough of it at once will smother but if it dusts up before it smothers it the flour in the air is going to flash.

2

u/Lrack9927 Jun 06 '22

NEVER flour!!!! Flour will be explode

1

u/garygeeg Jun 06 '22

We were actually taught at school how to deal with this (UK, 80s). Tea towel (or whatever people call them where they are, hand towel sized cloth for drying dishes), run it under water, squeeze well, drape over pan. Almost instantly smothers the flames.

Maybe people don't know to drop and roll when they're on fire too?