Who here has had a grease fire in the kitchen?

[fr8dog]

Just remembered. The GF was making mac & cheese one evening. (Not the boxed crap, she’s great at it from scratch.) She put it the oven and it bubbled over and caught fire. She was screaming that the house was on fire so I ran over with an extinguisher. Smoke everywhere, I opened up the oven door and it flared up again. Two shots with the FE and ‘emergency’ over. She had already hit 911 so the FD showed up. We (FD and I, not her) all got a chuckle out of it. I have pics to remind her of her cooking but I’m guessing that wouldn’t be wise.


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[BrianKF]

As an insurance agent, you would be shocked as to how often it happens but thankfully you caught it before it became catastrophic. I have never had a grease fire but had four bombs explode in my kitchen. I felt like having hard boiled eggs for lunch so the night before mu wife put 4 eggs in boiling water and we went downstairs to watch the Patriots game....completely forhgot about the eggs. That is right up until we heard an explosion....LOL. We run upstairs and there's egg EVERYWHERE. Just as i was going to grab the pot, the fourth egg exploded like a Claymore. LOL...luckily i wasn't close enough to get burned but its amazing how fast stuff can go wrong.

Had a guy where I worked at one time put an unopened can of beans in a toaster oven. Blew up the oven and the beans and a few oven pieces were scattered everywhere. It was a good thing no one was in the room at the time.

[Doorman1]

Ask anyone that managed base housing......... common......

As command duty officer at Naval Station Mayport, fl I had to respond to 5 or 6 in less then 2 years. At of all of them only one did any real serious damage to the unit.

[Mick2268]

Very common.
Even happens to FF's

As a retired fire captain...I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.

[1781ccT]

I was a food and beverage manager for King’s Dominion in Richmond VA, assigned with opening a new restaurant (Stan Makita’s) in the then-new Wayne’s World area. The kitchen design called for a glass window on three sides of the giant flat top grill, so people could see the burgers cooking. The hood system installed was really low at the end close to the glass, only about 3ft off the cooking surface.

We found out the glass made sure all the aerosolized grease got collected - a good thing. But not so great when you constantly have 100 patties on the grill. The traps got full, and the flames off the grill ignited the traps, then the hood panels. A few seconds later, the entire restaurant was covered in that fine white powder from the automatic fire extinguisher system. We had to give a LOT of free stuff away to about 75 guests that were inside when it happened. And then it took us several days to clean the entire place up. For a few seconds, it was a MASSIVE ball of flame!

[Ron H 520]

Don’t want to jinx myself, but never have. But……….I was driving by my girlfriends house one afternoon, just killing time, I believe it was around 1974. She lives in what I remember to be a three story house, if not, still the biggest by far in our small town of 1200 residents. Wood frame and wood exterior construction, located atop the largest hill in the city.

Anyway, she came running out the house, and as luck would have it, she saw me and flagged me down, screaming, the house is on fire! Well, I ran in and the cabinets above the stove were blazing, obviously, no fire extinguisher, but I spotted a 2 gallon container of tea she had just made on the counter. I was lucky, I knocked it down to the point I could refill the container, and it and stopped the spread, and pretty much extinguished it. She was cooking burgers, greasy ones at that.

The thing is, if we hadn’t stopped it, the house would have been toast. The towns fire protection was virtually non existent, being housed at the mill, with the alarm system being three short blasts by the mill whistle, to notify responders. It would have been a blaze to behold.

The irony of the deal, I ended up having a career as a firefighter. I always knew after that how to knock down a kitchen fire, just grab a jug of tea.

[divelt]

Just happened to us last week and i am thinking to buy some extra fire equipment for our home.
What do you guys have except the fire extinguisher?

[EarlK]

I was a fireman in Toronto for a very long time but back when I went on the job in '68 two of the most common fires we'd get were caused by either careless smoking or pots of grease boiling over on the stove, hitting the hot burners and bursting into flames. Over the years most people didn't smoke anymore and those fires became less frequent. Another good thing was the advent of thermostatically controlled appliances for heating grease that keeps them at a temperature that prevents boil overs. Bad stuff still happens of course but it's good to see it reduced. I've been retired now for many years but I'm sure those 2 types of fires in particular are still declining.

[J D]

I did it when I was about 9…. Was home sick, wanted bacon so I cooked me some. Started the fire. Put the lid on the pan, turned off the heat. The looked around to see if I caused any damage. Vent when on high, air freshener was sprayed. Then prayed a lot that my parents wouldn’t notice when they got home.

I’m 57 now and I still haven’t told my folks

[sheffism]

Drunk, home alone, fry a quick hamburger on the gas stove, military housing. Tilt pan for some reason, grease runs out, fire erupts. Black smoke all over the 1960's metal painted cabinets. Fire's out, cabinets cleaned after 3 hours...SOBER! Nah, never happened to me either

[Transom]

Just remembered. The GF was making mac & cheese one evening. (Not the boxed crap, she’s great at it from scratch.) She put it the oven and it bubbled over and caught fire. She was screaming that the house was on fire so I ran over with an extinguisher. Smoke everywhere, I opened up the oven door and it flared up again. Two shots with the FE and ‘emergency’ over. She had already hit 911 so the FD showed up. We (FD and I, not her) all got a chuckle out of it. I have pics to remind her of her cooking but I’m guessing that wouldn’t be wise.


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Buy her a real kitchen timer so she does not have to use the smoke detector.

[RockOn]

Had it already twice in my kitchen. Both time it started in the oven and both times when i wasn't at home. That made me re-think our safety setup and i am checking now different extra tools https://www.firefeu.com/c/firefighte...e-entry-tools/ which i plan to have in the kitchen somewhere. Any idea what is the best place to have those? Also curious in what age did you show your kids how to use the fire extinguisher and other tools?

[RangrSkipr]

As an insurance agent, you would be shocked as to how often it happens but thankfully you caught it before it became catastrophic. I have never had a grease fire but had four bombs explode in my kitchen. I felt like having hard boiled eggs for lunch so the night before mu wife put 4 eggs in boiling water and we went downstairs to watch the Patriots game....completely forhgot about the eggs. That is right up until we heard an explosion....LOL. We run upstairs and there's egg EVERYWHERE. Just as i was going to grab the pot, the fourth egg exploded like a Claymore. LOL...luckily i wasn't close enough to get burned but its amazing how fast stuff can go wrong.

Never under estimate the power of an egg. My son was 10 when one day he wanted a hard boiled egg. Instead of asking me or his mom to fix him one he elected to put an egg in the microwave. From the other end of the house we heard the loudest bang and when we went to investigate found a frightened kid and egg all over the kitchen. Luckily he wasn't hurt but the explosion was strong enough that it blew open and tweaked the door on the microwave so it no longer worked. Mom got a new microwave

[rebrom]

That’s why we make ours in the oven,grease doesn’t splatter.

[RonShow]

That’s why we make ours in the oven,grease doesn’t splatter.

the same

[Axkiker]

Yup. Salt killed the fire. Happens as we arent all perfect.

[mean_dean]

Never in the house but my grill has had a few major flares because not diligent enough about cleaning the bottom out a few times. I do keep multiple extinguishers around the house, 2 in the kitchen for grease, one in the garage, and one in the basement near HVAC/Water heater.

[cart7]

Years ago decided to let Grandma make thanksgiving turkey.
2-3 hours in it’s time to pull the bird out and baste it.
She used so much butter the turkey was literally bobbing in butter and juice. Juice sloshes out big time and the stove catches fire.
Not a big deal, shut off the stove, keep the door closed till the flames are choked out, after, drain excess juice, restart stove and sooth Grandma who thought she ruined the whole day.

[bilgerat]

Years ago decided to let Grandma make thanksgiving turkey.
2-3 hours in it’s time to pull the bird out and baste it.
She used so much butter the turkey was literally bobbing in butter and juice. Juice sloshes out big time and the stove catches fire.
Not a big deal, shut off the stove, keep the door closed till the flames are choked out, after, drain excess juice, restart stove and sooth Grandma who thought she ruined the whole day.

The women in my wife’s family would have put it back into the inferno and turned it into charcoal and at least one of them would have bitched that it wasn’t done …