Posted by Racer on July 31, 2005, at 1:03:13
In reply to Fire in the oven!, posted by Deneb on July 30, 2005, at 22:39:21
>
> BTW, what is the best thing to do when the oven catches fire? What about for the toaster oven? For a pot?
>
>Well, it always depends on how bad the fire is, but in general the rules are pretty much common sense:
1 When a pot catches fire, first try to put the lid on it. If the fire is too advanced to get that close, of course, a fire extinguisher is probably your best bet.
2. For a grease fire, baking soda is the method of first choice: make sure you use enough. NEVER use water on a grease fire.
3. When my mother used to set the broiler on fire, she'd basically close the broiler and turn off the gas. That usually did the job, but that was long ago and her oven was very different from what's available now.
4. For a fire in the oven, which I've never experienced, I would first turn off the oven, then try to douse it with a pot lid if I could get close enough to do so safely. If not, I'd probably grab some baking soda before grabbing the extinguisher.
By the way, I always keep a big box of baking soda in the kitchen, as well as a fire extinguisher. Aside from their use as safety devices, I used to keep a fire extinguisher next to my bed when I lived in a questionable neighborhood: figured that, if anyone broke in, I could squirt him in the face and slow him down long enough I might be able to get out. And, unlike a gun or baseball bat, it wouldn't look enough like a weapon to be stolen.
For another kitchen funny, though: I was at a friend's house once, and she was trying to feed me up -- anorexic period -- and tried to heat some frozen turnovers. (Pepperidge Farm apple turnovers -- YUM!) She got them in the oven -- only to have the smoke alarms go off a few minutes later. Turned out there was so much dust in her oven that it started burning and set off the alarm!
We laughed about that one for years.
poster:Racer
thread:535868
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050726/msgs/535881.html