Very important advice. Thanks.

I was going to say something in the recent "Show Me Your Kitchen" thread. Becasue I didn't see anyone has a fire extingusher in the kitchen.

The most important thing to understand is how to handle an oil fire. You cannot use water to put it out. It make it worst. You need a fire extingusher that can be used for oil fire.

dcarch

DC, It is a great tip. I know exactly where my kitchen fire extinguisher is. It's a good thing too as the warming dish fire Thanksgiving day reminded me to check the extinguisher's expiration date. Two years ago I moved it from cleverly hanging in the garage to the pantry untethered and easier to reach. It ain't pretty but it's a necessity particularly with my tendency to get preoccupied on the CF.

Fire extinguishers have expiration dates? Good to know, I will have to check mine.

Any opinion on weather it could have been caused from to much moisture left in the broccoli?

I'm thinking excess water is a prime culprit in the incident! If it was too wet, woulda caused oil to jump outta pan... et voila... flames.

I'd probably rely on a salad spinner to remove excess water rather than paper towels. That way you don't have to squish the food.

Thanks klseiverd, apparently my DH was right.

My fire extinguisher is conveniently stored in the cabinet under the kitchen sink....literally a half-step from the stove!

Glad your "incident" was not serious eandhl. Coulda been way worse!

Linda

Do yourself a favor. Do a search on youtube:

Kitchen fire, oil fire.

See for yourself, and all your family members..

dcarch

Have a lid ready when frying with high heat. The best way to put out an oil fire in a pan is to put the lid on the pan. A fire extinguisher will make a huge mess, some of the chemicals are damaging to counters, and some of the cute little extinguishers don't work well per some tests I've read.

I always have a jar of baking soda on the counter next to the cook top.
But I am having a bit of trouble envisioning the OP's scenario. Frying broccoli? Stir frying?...deep frying? if you were stir frying,w hy did you have so much oil in the pan as to splash out and cause a fire, and if you were deep frying.....did you not bread the broccoli before frying?
Curious me wonders what was it you were making? I have many many times put something wet into 1/4 inch of oil in a pan and not had it splatter enough to catch fire as you describe.
Linda C

I have put out grease fires by pouring salt or baking soda on them. They are both in the cab by the range. I keep the fire extinguisher inside the basement door, just a few steps from the range. I bet it is expired by now. I know the larger ones need to be recharged from time to time. When my parents owned an apt building, the fire inspector would come out regularly to check them. We did keep ours up to date. A former tenant moved to another apt across the street. He burned the building down by falling asleep while heating oil for fries. Idiot. Later he said he went running for the extinguisher but there was none. Very sad for the other tenants.

Anyway, when I add broccoli to stir fry. it sizzles like crazy if it isn't thoroughly drained. I think your DH was right.

You must have seen videos of people pour starter fluid on a backyard BBQ, and the large globe of fire that creates. What the fire ball is, it is explosive burning of the petroleum vapor.

Explosive combustion also happens when combustible material is atomized, like in your car engine, or a grain elevator explosion.

You donâÂÂt always have to be deep frying to start a kitchen fire.

1. A few tablespoons of cooking oil when its very hot and you stir fry some wet food in it can create a lot of oil mist in the air to start a good size fire.
2. A few table spoons of cooking oil on a frying pan that you left on the fire too long can create a lot of oil vapor and start a good size explosive fire ball.

A good size fire extinguisher mounted in a convenient location, rated for oil fire and electric fire is a must in the kitchen, IMHO.

dcarch

I can understand oil vapor in the air when heating oil hot hot hot....but in my experience it smokes at that point and alerts you that your oil is way too hot....and probably will taste bad, so dump it out and start again.
But even if she didn't notice, what about that oil vapor would cause it to combust when putting in wet broccoli?

"--------But even if she didn't notice, what about that oil vapor would cause it to combust when putting in wet broccoli?"

What causes an oil vapor (or any atomized air/combustible material mixture) to start auto-kindling explosive chain reaction is the presence of a spark or a nearby flame source; Such as a spark plug in a gasoline engine, a glow plug in a diesel engine, or a match in a circus performer's fire blowing act.

A classic physics experiment is to blow ordinary flour into a candle in a shoe box, causing the shoe box to explode.

dcarch

Or, you could go 'old tech' & use this type extinguisher. We picked up a bunch of these guys at auction back in the early 80s in various colors. They've all got some amount of water left inside. I keep a couple sitting out for decoration by the stove. They're fun when we have guests. Currently, none of the grenades on ebay have their original corks/water.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Old Tech Fire Extinguishers

I was doing a stir fry in a fry pan. The bottom of the pan wasn't cover with the oil. I would say slightly over a TBS. and only about 5 or so pieces of the broccoli hit the pan.
I did reach for the lid beside the range as I pulled the pan off the flame it went out immediately.

The flash point of vegetable cooking oil is around 600F. That is the temperature at which oil will start to vaporize, and the vapor can be ignited by a flame. A natural gas flame is about 3,000F. So, leave a pan of vegetable oil on a high burner flame long enough, and the pan bottom will get to 600F, ignitable vapors will come off the oil, and if those vapors get exposed to burner flame, you have ignition. I guess the water on the broccoli spattered, throwing a bit of oil beyond the pan, and that oil was at the flash point. The good thing is, at the flash point the oil itself isn't burning, just the vapors, so it isn't a long lived fire - get the pan away from the burner, turn off the burner, or contain the vapors with the lid. (You understand, I haven't started lots of fires in my kitchen just to test this - that's just based on the couple of oil flareups I've had plus info on flash point of different oils.)