Gordon Ramsey has a lot of skills in the kitchen, as long as it has to do with cooking. When it comes to fire safety, he scores a big fat zero. The man is hazardous. So, if you ever have a grease fire in a cooking pan at home, don’t be like Gordon Ramsey. Learn everything you need to know about how to deal with grease fires by following the links in this article to CulinaryLore resources. But, what does Ramsey do that is so wrong?
If I could name one thing NOT to do with a grease fire, it would be to pick up the pan and carry the fire around in a panic before throwing it into a sink. People have caused containable fires to be out-of-control home blazes by doing this when they drop the pan on the floor, scattering the flaming oil all over the place, or by trying to toss the pan in a sink and scattering the fire to the counters or even onto themselves.
Yet, on more than one occasion, acclaimed chef Gordon Ramsay has been filmed doing this: He picks up flaming pans and runs across the kitchen among other cooks before quite forcefully tossing the pan into a sink. When he does toss the pan, the flames spread all over the sink and become larger before he idiotically turns on the faucet, thus causing the fire to become MORE fierce. The man seems to have had no fire safety training at all. This is a recipe for disaster and he’s quite lucky he didn’t light himself on fire or cause others in the room serious injury.
Watch the following video Fire Department Chronicles on YouTube. It is done in a tongue-in-cheek way, but Gordon’s actions in the video are extremely dangerous.
If you want ONE golden rule for grease fires, besides not picking up the flaming pan and carrying it around, it’s NEVER EVER put water on a grease fire. I learned this from my mother when I was a little kid. Apparently, Gordon was asleep during that lesson. Water will not readily extinguish a grease fire. Instead, the water will simply cause the grease to spread, thus spreading the fire. You’ll notice in the video that the fire became much larger when Gordon turned on the faucet.
Watch the following video for some frightening catastrophies from home kitchen fires that were caught on camera.
For comprehensive material on home kitchen grease fires, see the following articles:
- How Hot Does Cooking Oil Need to Be Before It Catches Fire? (through overview of home grease fires)
- Learn How to Use Your Home Fire Extinguisher!
- Keep Your Child Safe from Scalds or Burns – 10 Kitchen Tips You Need to Know
I encourage you to read the linked articles above for a thorough overview of home kitchen fires, however, here are some quick and safe methods to deal with small grease fires in the kitchen so that they will not become large fires.
The first thing to do when dealing with a grease fire is to turn off the heat source (only if you can do this without coming in contact with the flames). Then, the goal is to eliminate the oxygen. There are several methods of doing this.
Top 6 Rules for Dealing with Grease Fires
1. Most grease fires in pans can be easily extinguished by placing a cooking sheet or baking sheet on the pan. In a pinch, a lid can be used but a cookie sheet is much safter as it allows you to keep more distance between your hand and the fire. Carefully slide the baking sheet over the pan from front to back rather than putting the sheet into the flames and lowering it onto the pan. Sliding the lid from front to back will keep the flames away from you. It’s a good idea to keep a cookie sheet handy for just this purpose.
2. Use a fire blanket. Fire blankets can easily be hung on the wall in accessible locations and quickly unfolded. They could not be more simple to use. You just unfold the blanket, hold it up in front of yourself, and carefully move it over the fire to cover the pan and the fire. Wait a moment and the fire will extinguish.
3. Home fire extinguisher. See How to Use Your Home Fire Extinguisher. The reason that the fire extinguisher is listed last is that, when used improperly, an extinguisher can cause more problems and perhaps even exacerbate the fire, leading to injuries. While using a baking sheet, lid, or fire blanket is very easy to instruct, using a fire extinguisher requires more explanation.
4. Salt or Baking Soda: For some reason, many sources list this method as the ‘best’ one. It is not. It is the last method you should consider and if you have a baking sheet or fire blanket, there is no need to turn to baking soda or salt. While pouring baking soda or salt onto a grease fire can extinguish the flame by robbing the fire of oxygen, it is a very inefficient way to do it and requires you to either throw the baking soda or salt onto the flames or get your hand very near the flames themselves. You can easily end up dispersing the oil by dumping any sort of powdery or granulated substance on it and this will spread the fire. Since the only safe way to put salt or baking soda onto a fire is to stand a few feet back from the fire and throw it onto the fire, it’s more likely to disperse the grease and spread the fire. So, consider this the least safe and least effective method.
5. For small and contained grease fires (which are most grease fires before they become worse due to the wrong actions of the cook), use a baking sheet or lid. For larger grease fires, use a fire extinguisher.
6. If you have a stove with any kind of heated element, rather old-fashioned coiled elements or ceramic-top cookers, after the fire is safely out, carefully slide the pan off of the heat source, taking care not to slosh any liquid oil out of the pan. Allow it to cool naturally before dealing with it. Once you put out the flame on a gas burner, there will not be enough heat from the grate to cause any problems, but once you turn off an electric burner, it will remain very hot for quite a while and could cause the hot oil to combust again after you extinguish the flames so this is why you need to carefully get the pan away from the burner.
