Posted on Thu, Jul 23, 2009 : 10:05 p.m.
How to extinguish a grease fire - and how not to extinguish a grease fire
By Edward Vielmetti
A recent story here about a grease fire that caused $5000 in damage got me to looking for suggestions and instructions on how to safely put out one of these fires without getting burned and without lighting your kitchen on fire.
I'm not certain of the origin of this public service announcement video; it speaks of a "chip pan", and the accent sounds to me to be either Australian or British. Worth a look, for it tells you how to extinguish a grease fire - and at least as importantly how not to extinguish a grease fire.
Comments
Jennifer Shikes Haines
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 5:10 a.m.
A chip pan would probably be something like a deep fryer? It would be for making chips (fries).
Wguru
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 1:02 a.m.
For a fire in the grease pan under the burners of a stove, baking soda then water works. Turn off and unplug the stove first. When I was a UM sophomore living in University Towers in 1966-67, my roommate was floor manager. One weekend when he was gone and I was cooking my dinner, there was a knock at the door. A demure coed asked in broken English if the floor manager was home. When I said "Sorry, no, can I help?", she turned to look back down the hallway. That's when I noticed the smoke rolling down the ceiling at the far end of the hallway around the corner from her apartment. I ran down to find flames coming up from beneath the burners on her stove. Another neighbor had pulled the stove out away from the wall. Then he and I used baking soda and water to douse the fire. After making sure everything was secure, I suggested she go to the office downstairs to tell the management and I went back to preparing my dinner. A few minutes later, I heard many sirens... more than one sometimes heard passing by there... but these didn't seem to pass by! Then I heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. I opened my door to see firefighters with big fire extinguishers on their backs running down the hall. I found out later that pretty much every fire engine and ambulance in the area had been dispatched there... which was prudent considering how fast a fire on that third floor could have spread to the other floors of the twenty story building since it seemed to lack firewalls between apartments. It might have been Ann Arbor's "Towering Inferno".