Safety Tips for Avoiding Grease Fires When Cooking

In the event of a grease fire, would you know what to do to extinguish it? What is the burning point of the cooking oil you are using? What is the one thing you should never throw on a grease fire? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then this blog post is for you!

For starters, let’s talk about what a grease fire is, and why they occur. A grease fire happens when the oil you are cooking with gets too hot and starts to smoke, and then begins to burn. Most vegetable oils have a smoking point of about 450 F, and animal fats, (think lard, chicken fat, duck fat, etc.) have a smoking point of about 375 F. See our second blog post tomorrow for the correct smoke points of most common cooking oils.

The easiest way to avoid a grease fire is by being vigilant and remaining in the kitchen when you are frying or cooking with oil. When you are cooking with oil, you need to keep your eyes peeled on the oil as it is heating. If you begin to see wisps of smoke, or start to smell something acrid, IMMEDIATELY turn down the heat, and REMOVE the pot from the burner completely.

The oil won’t burst into spontaneous combustion; however the smoke is signaling that danger lies ahead if you don’t take some safety precautions ASAP.

For the sake of this blog post, let’s say you did leave the kitchen while you had something frying. You return and OH MY GOSH there are flames coming from the frying pan. Panic sets in and you are not sure what to do first…..the tips below will help you determine what to do.

• Turn the Heat Off – DO NOT TRY AND REMOVE THE POT. Why not? Because you might inadvertently splash burning oil on yourself or the kitchen. Not a good thing to do!
• Cover the Pot with a Metal Lid - Just like humans, fire needs oxygen to breathe. When you cover the fire with a lid, you take away its source of life. Once the lid is on, the fire will quickly consume all the oxygen and should put itself out. HOWEVER…use a metal lid, because a glass one will shatter. Don’t have a lid for the pan? Use a cookie sheet.
• Pour on Baking Soda - Baking soda will extinguish grease fires, but only if they’re small. It takes a lot of baking soda to do the job.
• Spray the Pot with a Class B Dry Chemical Fire Extinguisher – This should be your very last resort as once the fire extinguisher is used, you will contaminate your kitchen. BUT if the fire is getting out of control, a contaminated kitchen should be the last thing you are concerned about.
• Get Out and Call 911 - If the fire does break out of control, get yourself and your family out of the house. While no one wants to see their home burn down, homes can be restored and/or replaced, people can’t! This is not the time to play hero! Get out and call 911.

DO NOT:

• Do Not throw water on a grease fire, EVER! This is the number one mistake most folks make with a grease fire. All it will do is make things worse. Remember the old saying “Water and Oil don’t mix!” In this case, mixing them will create a disaster. Refer to our FB page, or click Grease Fire and Water Demonstration for the video showing water happens when you throw water onto a grease fire.

• Do Not swat at a grease fire with a towel, apron or any type of other clothing. What may happen is you simply spread the fire. Again, not a good thing to do.
• Do Not throw anything but baking soda on a fire! Not baking powder, not white flour, not sugar, nothing but baking soda should be thrown on the fire (again this is assuming the fire is small and a box of baking soda can do the trick). Why not use something else like flour or sugar? Because they are combustible and will do nothing but add to the fire’s growth and intensity.

How to avoid a grease fire from starting:

• Stay in the kitchen…..I know, I know, I know we already told you this but this is one of those items that bears repeating (and repeating). If you stay in the kitchen, you will be able to see smoke or smell the oil burning so you can take immediate action.
• Make sure you are cooking with a pan that has a heavy lid so you can smother the flames if need be. If you don’t have a lid, keep a cookie sheet close by when cooking with oil. NO, that doesn’t mean that if you have a lid on the pot, you can leave the kitchen. While a grease fire is less likely to start in a pot with a lid on, that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
• Clip a thermometer to the side of the pot so you can be aware of how hot the oil is getting, and how close you are getting to the smoke point of the oil.

Remember.....A Fire Needs Three Things to Burn:

A fire will keep growing until you remove one of these items.

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