Learn from my mistake. Preventing kitchen fires is serious business. I should have known better than to create the conditions for a dangerous fire.
Although I’m embarrassed by what happened, I’m also lucky. There was no injury or damage. Why publicly disclose my wrong decision? Because I’m going to learn from my misadventure and you can too.
Evening was fast approaching and I had to rush to get dinner on the table. (Already you can tell this is not going to end well.) I was not attentive enough as I heated oil in a pan; it got too hot, and then I compounded the problem by throwing vegetables into the pan. The fire flared up, huge flames reaching from my much loved cast iron pan, all the way up to the exhaust fan, several feet above the stove.
Luckily I had the good sense to immediately turn off the stove off, but my next move was not so smart – I turned around to grab my baking soda from a cabinet at my back. The fire did die down after several scary moments, but the sight of the flames leaping out of the pan was a visual I won’t soon forget.
As I calmly retold the story later, I realized that I wasn’t prepared to deal with the emergency. And even if I had found quickly thrown baking soda over the oil, my response was not the right one. .
My kitchen fire experience is, unfortunately, not such an unusual experience. Check out these statistics from the National Fire Protection Association.
Causes of Home Fires
- Cooking is the second leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries.
- Unattended cooking was by far the leading cause of cooking fires in 2006-2010. In half of the cooking fires that began with cooking materials (including food), cooking oil, fat, grease or similar substances were first ignited.
What should I have done? I should have had a large enough lid at the ready and should have smothered the fire by sliding the lid over the burning pan.
You can bet that from now on, when I cook with oil or butter, I’m going to keep the appropriate lids handy.
Barb | Creative Culinary says
I know to do this but always good to get reminders; I think in the moment we can easily be flustered and not react with much thinking. Many would throw water on the flames; the absolute worst response!
Glad you're OK…that's a big WHEW!!
Sally says
Nice post – when it comes to it do people actually know what to do in the case of a kitchen fire? It's crucial that people are aware because these kinds of fires can become deadly if you don't act fast.
Like you said, it does happen more often than you'd expect – maybe we should leave certain recipes to the professionals! 🙂
motherwouldknow says
Thanks for stopping by Sally. The recipe definitely wasn't the problem in my case – it was my inattention. Now that I'm more focused on what can happen and how to prevent injury and damage, I am comfortable saying that home cooking is still a great idea. I don't want anyone to shy away from home cooking, just to be careful.
Fire company says
Practice good workplace housekeeping. Clutter contributes to fires by providing fuel and by preventing access to exits and emergency equipment.The site style is wonderful, the articles is really great
Kitchen Worktops Guy says
Thanks for the tip, it's so important to be careful, glad you're alright!
motherwouldknow says
Thanks for stopping by. Although the experience wasn't fun, I certainly learned from it and had no injury or lasting damage. I did have to think about it again as I cleaned the vent about the stove last week.