The Right Way To Put Out A Kitchen Fire

If you spend any appreciable amount of time in the kitchen you will, at one point or another, be confronted with a kitchen fire. Dumping buckets of water on the situation is almost never a great idea, but luckily Bon Appetit has some tips on how to prevent and handle various kitchen fires.

Photo by Steven Depolo.

To get the do’s and don’ts of fire management, Bon Appetit turned to Lieutenant Anthony Mancuso, director of fire safety with the New York City Fire Department, but the advice isn’t geographically specific. First of all, make sure you have a fire extinguisher, specifically one that is rated “B,” meaning it can handle oil, grease, and gas. Speaking of grease fires, it’s very important that you never try to extinguish one with water. Water won’t extinguish the flames, and the fire will just get bigger and less manageable.

When extinguishing either a stovetop or or broiler fire, it helps to think in terms of oxygen. Oxygen supports combustion, so the best thing you can do in either case is cut off the oxygen supply. For fires in the oven, this means leaving the door closed. Just turn the oven off and back away. A stovetop fire might be a little trickier. If it’s a small fire in a pot or pan, try covering it with a lid or a bunch of baking soda. If that doesn’t work, grab the extinguisher.

Finally, if the none of the above is cutting it, or if the fire gets bigger than a basketball, just call the local fire department.

How to Put Out a Kitchen Fire Because OMG FLAMES [Bon Appetit]