Are you prepared for a kitchen fire?

caseydog

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It got driven home today that kitchen fires happen. My next-door neighbor's kitchen, and part of the house, was destroyed today by a kitchen fire. It made me think. Am I prepared for a kitchen fire?

I have a kitchen fire extinguisher, but it is easily ten years old or older. Time to replace it! They need to be recharged or replaced at some point. Since I don't really know how old mine is, I'm going to replace it.

As much as CookingBites members cook, we all need to be prepared the fire we hope will never happen. Are you prepared?

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CD
 
I've had a fire extinguisher on my list for about 20 years and have never gotten around to getting one. Thanks for the reminder.

I'm buying replacements tomorrow. One for the kitchen, and one for the garage. The one in the garage is probably 20 years old. I just never think about them.

CD
 
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I'm sorted, Mrs Blank got her Ships firefighting certificate from Miami Coastguard. She became a team leader and donned her protective uniform to fight serious fires twice. The first one was on a Celebrity/ Chandris ship. Mrs Blank was supervising afternoon Tea in the main dinning room when the main fuel feed fractured and exploded just before Nassau. The Captain ordered Muster Stations, crew training according to her then was excellent. She organised her muster station then went to her teams fire locker, they got dressed and fought the fire. The Master (Greek) very skillfully got the ship into Nassau dock when one of the boiler exploded and holed her. Everyone got off. The ship was eventually scrapped. This was in the late 80's she was about 25 yrs.
So if the kitchen went up I would go for a walk and leave Mrs Blank to sort it.
 
So if the kitchen went up I would go for a walk and leave Mrs Blank to sort it.

Ah, but only if she has the tools to put it out with. That's what hit me today. Do I have what I need to put out a kitchen fire? No, I don't feel confident in the tools I have right now. For well less than 100 bucks, I can correct that. I'm going to.

CD
 
Ah, but only if she has the tools to put it out with.
I just asked Mrs Blank if she is tooled up. She showed me the same kit I have to have here in my car, she bought both kits in the UK. Extinguisher, first aid box etc and a large heavy towel that she would dampen and throw over a stove top fire before running. She also switches off the gas cylinder in the kitchen for the hob and on the balcony for the BBq. She is very practical so they both had new pipe thingies put on before we moved in. She had a smoke detector placed in the hallway outside the bedrooms. My contribution was a fire resistant safe.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fD1hkfubKE
 
I just asked Mrs Blank if she is tooled up. She showed me the same kit I have to have here in my car, she bought both kits in the UK. Extinguisher, first aid box etc and a large heavy towel that she would dampen and throw over a stove top fire before running. She also switches off the gas cylinder in the kitchen for the hob and on the balcony for the BBq. She is very practical so they both had new pipe thingies put on before we moved in. She had a smoke detector placed in the hallway outside the bedrooms. My contribution was a fire resistant safe.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fD1hkfubKE

In my line of work around old cars, carburetor fires happen on a regular basis, while trying to start a car that has been parked too long. You prime the carbs with gasoline, and they sometimes backfire through the carb and start a fire. We use towels to put those out. The first time it happens, it scares the crap out of you. You get used to it.

A wet towel would probably be my first choice with a small grease fire in a pan. But, I'd still like to have a fire extinguisher handy, just in case things got beyond the wet towel level.

Good video.

CD
 
Just bought a basic home extinguisher today, $20. Cheap peace of mind.

To go along with the same topic, remember my griping about smoke detectors chirping in the middle of the night? Well, one chirped, woke me up, and so the next day, I changed all the batteries and vacuumed them all out.

Two nights later, a different one chirped. That resulted in my ripping it off the ceiling and throwing it half the length of the house, smashing it into a thousand little pieces across the living room.

Yesterday...another one started chirping, and I heard it chirp again this morning. After doing a little research, I've found permanently-sealed 10-year-battery-life detectors. I think I'm going to buy those and hope for the best. Right now, we're down to two out of four detectors (although three of them are within four feet of each other), so I want to get those replaced fairly soon.
 
I have a fire extinguisher (in the laundry room, which is next to the kitchen), but I last checked it...um...okay, I have no idea how old it is, meaning that it's probably as old as the house (20 years). Yikes. $20 is a small price to pay for peace of mind. I will stop by a hardware store to get a replacement as soon as I can get there!

Also in the laundry room: my cat's litter box. I can throw (clean!) kitty litter on fire if the fire extinguisher doesn't work.

As far as whether I'm prepared to start a fire: why yes, in fact...I've got plenty of things that can do that.
 
Just bought a basic home extinguisher today, $20. Cheap peace of mind.

To go along with the same topic, remember my griping about smoke detectors chirping in the middle of the night? Well, one chirped, woke me up, and so the next day, I changed all the batteries and vacuumed them all out.

Two nights later, a different one chirped. That resulted in my ripping it off the ceiling and throwing it half the length of the house, smashing it into a thousand little pieces across the living room.

Yesterday...another one started chirping, and I heard it chirp again this morning. After doing a little research, I've found permanently-sealed 10-year-battery-life detectors. I think I'm going to buy those and hope for the best. Right now, we're down to two out of four detectors (although three of them are within four feet of each other), so I want to get those replaced fairly soon.

They run an advertisement here on the shortest or is it the longest day, saying change your batteries on smoke alarm. We have two down and two upstairs.

Russ
 
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