Fire Facts

In light of the two most recent structure related fires here in Murray, and questions I've received about those fires – which took place on Aug. 22 on Bambi Lane, and on Aug. 26

on Irvan Street, I wish to present once again to our community information that I hope will help to prevent kitchen fires, and specifically cooking related fires – as the two above-mentioned fires were cooking related, and specifically unattended cooking.

THESE FIRES WERE 100% PREVENTABLE!

To begin, each kitchen fire being addressed here involved food being prepared on an electric stove, and specifically cooking oil being heated in a pan. However, the same situation happens when cooking with gas-fired appliances. Now, you ask, “What's wrong with doing that? Everybody does it.” And the answer is, NOTHING! The issue is cooking oil being heated on a stove unattended, and the oil being allowed to reach its flash point and/or ignition (or auto-ignition) temperature, and a fire starting with no-one present to extinguish the fire timely. To help you understand this seemingly innocent, yet dangerous situation, I will explain a few Fire Facts concerning cooking oil and kitchen fires:

Safety Rules for Hot Oil Fires

• Rule 1: If a pan of hot oil catches on fire, turn off the stove as long as you can do so safely, and slide the pan away from the hot burner. If you are unable to reach the control buttons or knobs due to the extent of the fire, go to your electrical service panel and turn off the circuit breaker powering your stove/oven. When in doubt as to which breaker to turn off, turn the main breaker off, or turn all breakers to the off position. In the case of gas-fired cooking appliances, find the lug-type shut-off device on the pipe connected to the gas meter. With a wrench, turn the lug from its in-line (open) position on the pipe, to a cross-line (closed) position as shown here:

• Rule 2: Always have a lid handy. A grease fire like the one in this photo can usually be extinguished simply by placing a lid on the pan. Do so by placing the lid onto the pan from the front to the rear – in this case, you are using the lid to shield yourself from the heat of the fire. This action should extinguish the fire very quickly. Only use a lid to extinguish the flame when the fire is small and contained in the pan.

Once it has spread beyond the pan, it is best to use a fire extinguisher. if there is

no fire extinguisher available, then try throwing baking soda (NOT BAKING POWDER) onto the fire until the fire has been extinguished. If you cannot safely extinguish the fire, or you don't feel comfortable attempting to extinguish the fire, call 911 immediately.

• Rule 3: NEVER pour water on a grease fire! Water will not put out a grease fire, it will only spread the fire and make it worse, perhaps MUCH worse. Pouring water onto oil that has caught fire can cause the oil to almost erupt, exploding out of the pan and splattering in all directions, taking the fire with it.

Recommendation: Purchase at minimum a 2.5 pound Class ABC or BC fire extinguisher. Most home fire extinguishers come with a wall mounting bracket so that you can store it within easy reach near where you cook. For home grease fires, the newest and most effective type of extinguisher is a wet chemical Class-K extinguisher. This type of fire extinguisher uses a potassium acetate based extinguishing agent with a low pH which also cools the fire as it extinguishes it. This can be important to prevent re-ignition, however, literally putting a proper fitting lid on the fire and removing the pot away from the source of heat will extinguish the fire.

I sincerely hope this information has been helpful to you, and that you've been reminded of the fact that you are the person most responsible for your own life-safety and that of your loved ones. For more information on kitchen fires please consult the National Fire Protection Association/NFPA, or the in Center for Disease Control/CDC. Should you have any immediate questions, please contact the Office of the Fire Marshal at [email protected].

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