Scary but important email i just received. Not political, but IMPORTANT!!!!

[napi21]

A few years ago, I turned a stove burner on "high," but I didn't realize greasy chicken stock had boiled over earlier in the day, filling the catch pan under the cook top. I turned my back for a few seconds to find a utensil. When I turned back, small flames were shooting from the burner. My quick thinking told me to smother a grease fire, so I grabbed a pot lid to do that, but it wasn't airtight and soon the flames were double the size and spreading.

My heart was pounding, the smoke alarm was screaming and I was in full-on panic mode. Flames were reaching toward the adjacent wood cabinets. It happened so fast! I didn't have time to run to the pantry to search for baking soda. I had a rip-roaring fire on my hands and I was in slow motion thinking about how sad it would be to be homeless for Christmas. That's when I locked eyeballs with the fire extinguisher that had been sitting on the counter for so long it blended into the décor.

I'd never engaged a fire extinguisher. I read the instructions once but that's about it. Not knowing what to expect, I grabbed that thing, jerked out this red plastic ring (it came out easily), pointed the nozzle and pulled the trigger. It put out the fire with one mighty blast of fine yellow powder so strong and powerful it nearly knocked me off my feet.

My experience not only woke me up, it sent me into research mode. What I learned is sobering, if not shocking: Each year, fire kills more Americans than all other natural disasters combined. Eighty percent of all fire deaths occur in residences. Where do those residential fires start? In the kitchen!

As grateful as I am, I did not do everything by the book. A fire extinguisher is no substitute for the fire department. One third of all people injured by fire are hurt while trying to control it. Fire safety professionals tell us to call 911 first. Then, use the extinguisher. The fire department will be on the way in case the fire cannot be controlled.

Next, only use an extinguisher on small fires. Be sure that you can get out fast and that the fire is small and not spreading. Grab that thing, stand back six feet and use the P.A.S.S. System: Pull the pin. Aim at the base of the flames. Squeeze the handle. Sweep from side to side.

If the fire does not go out quickly, close the door to the room, get everyone out of the house and exit the premises promptly. Meet the fire department in front and direct them to the location of the fire.

Not surprisingly, fire extinguishers are on my Christmas list for everyone. I hope you'll do the same, starting with yourself. You don't need big industrial-strength extinguishers. Home models start at less than $25 and are available at Home Depot.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I keep a huge box of baking soda next to the stove at all times..

[napi21]

5. The reason I posted this was because many years ago, when I was first married,

I had a small fire in the kitchen. I was lucky. I saw the flames, and quickly threw water on them and put them out, but we lived next to the fire department, and the only thing that entered my mind at the time was "OH GOD, you can't be responsible for a fire!" Our kitchen was a poor set up. The stove was right next to the window with curtains, and that's what happened. I put some meat in a pot to cook, and went off to do some laundry. When I returned, the water had cooked off and the heat caused the surtains to catch fire. Your first reaction is "I can put this out myself. That's why I posted this email. It's important to realize that sometimes you CAN'T!

[BrklynLiberal]

28. I had something like happen when I was first married. I was hard-boiling

some eggs, and got involved in a conversation with a neighbor. The first sign that something was wrong was the SMELL!!!
I ran to the kitchen and found the remains of hard-boiled eggs all over the walls and ceiling. The water had boiled out, and the eggs exploded.
I was VERY lucky that there was no fire started...but the smell...imagine the smell of rotten eggs....was in the house for about a week.

I did not mean to imply that one should try to be a hero and put the fire out oneself. I know that the fire department is there for a reason, and we are lucky that we can take advantage of them. It is important to know our own limits.

Thank you.

[EC]

8. I keep a round of salt

by the stove...the fire extingisher hangs on the wall too...

[cliffordu]

10. Yep.....I have about two pounds under the sink next to the stove....

[conscious evolution]

24. Move it farther away from the stove.

If your stove turns into a raging fire it can be dangerous to put the extinguisher in a place where you can't get to it.

[liberalmuse]

2. There's a fire extinguisher just outside my door.

Scary! My right wing uncle sent my sister and I this ridiculous email about a 'Plug-in' air freshener being dangerous and the cause of house fires. Of course 'Snopes' debunked it, so I sent him the clip from 'Snopes'. Then, one day my sister kept smelling something burning in her house and went into the bathroom to find the 'Plug-In' kind of blackened and melted down in the socket. It probably wouldn't have burned down the house, but still. :eyes:

[Gwendolyn]

3. Thank you! That's good info to have.

Couple of Christmases ago, sickened by shopping and sweating it out at the schmall without a single creative idea of what to get for anyone, I bought kitchen fire extinguishers (in nifty colors) and car emergency kits for half the clan. I got some funny looks :) at my practical yuletide offerings, but since then have gotten three appreciative calls from people saying they had used one or the other. I've never had to use my kitchen extinguisher but look at it often and am always happy it's there.

[elleng]

4. SALT

works, and is generally handy.

You reminded me: Put Salt on Dad's Stove Top!

[greyl]

6. That piece is by Mary Hunt - COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

www.creators.com/lifestylefeatures/everyday-cheapskate/burn-down-the-house-i-ll-p-a-s-s.html

edit: CAPS were in the original from which I posted. Not yelling. ;)

[norepubsin08]

7. I am wholeheartedly with you

that and working smoke alarms. On January 27, 1992 our family had a house fire that was started by a defective coffee pot...it's wiring had messed up the wiring in the walls of our house. All day that day it was low grade and in the walls and we didn't know it. We had just gone to bed in the second floor of the house when the alarm shattered our peace. My immediate thought was to take a baseball bat to it. When I looked down the stairs, the living room was engulfed and we had to jump from the roof outside of our bedroom. When we came back the next day, we could see our foot prints. For you, that extinguisher saved your life, for us it was the smoke alarm. Please everyone BE SAFE and BE PREPARED!!!!

[renate]

29. my goodness, how scary n/t

:scared:

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. In California, you can take emerg. prep. training with the fire dept free, includes practice firing

actual fire extinguisher.

[napi21]

11. As far as I know, that's not available in Ga. I wish it was. I wish it

was available everywhere!

[1]

12. "A fire extinguisher is no substitute for the fire department." bull fucking shit., bud!

a fire extinguisher stops a fire in its tracks when it is small.

i have stopped several fires when they were just small fires that could have gotten out of control if not for the efforts of me and an extinguisher.


your advice is 100% absolute bullshit.


when a fire occurs you put it out. by any means available. when it is as small as possible. smother, extinguish, whatever.

"A fire extinguisher is no substitute for the fire department." wtf???

my god please do not listen to this idiot...

[napi21]

13. Why ar you so angry? I don't think anyone said not to do what's necessary.

Most people don't recognise the danger, and underestimate the damage. Certainly everyone should try to put the fire out with whatever means they have, but fires can get out of control very quickly, and you need to recognize calling 911 is the best thing to do.

[1]

15. i'm not angry, friend... but when a fire presents itself you put it out....

you charge into that effort and extinguish the fire as quickly as possible, by any means available.

if you can't, if you are overwhelmed, then call 911 and get a fire department many minutes or hours away involved.

the advice you offer in your original post is dangerous, foolish and irresponsible.


there... no anger. is that better? friends?

[moriah]

16. As I said.... firefighters I know disagree with you.

They would rather be called immediately on a cordless while you have the fire extinguisher in hand and have you give your information to the person while you are trying to put it out yourself, than get the call too late.

I don't think the OP was suggesting that anyone throw up their hands and do nothing and just wait for the volunteer fire department in your tiny rural town to arrive to put out a small stove fire that could have been put out with an extinguisher. Or even throw up your hands and do nothing until the fire department right next door gets there.

[moriah]

14. .... "when it is small".

Unfortunately a person CAN underestimate the "smallness" of a fire, and should you underestimate the size of the fire and be unable to put it out yourself, every second counts.

I know a lot of people who work for the various Fire Departments in our state, both professionally and as volunteers (most of the small towns here simply don't have a paid fire department).

If you live 30 miles away from the nearest fire department and have a fire that it turns out you can't put out yourself, calling the FD immediately and then trying to put it out is the smartest thing. If you do manage to put it out, you can call back and tell them you got it out yourself. But five minutes can be the difference between your house getting completely engulfed and just damaging a few rooms.

Every firefighter I've talked to has given me the advice the OP gave about calling the fire department first. They would MUCH rather turn around and go back to bed if the fire is able to be put out with a small fire extinguisher than be called five minutes too late and not be able to save the house.

I currently live in the city, less than five minutes away from the nearest fire department. And those fire fighters say the same thing that the rural volunteers have told me. "Call us first, then try to put it out -- we'd much rather get there and see you got it under control yourself than get there too late."

[1]

17. pretty much always it starts out as small. and "every second counts." between small and large...

that's how fires do.

if you live "30 miles away" from the nearest fire department, as you say, then the actions you take in the first few minutes will be the difference between putting the small fire out and losing everything.

in the time it would take a fire department "30 miles away" to respond to a fire all of your shit would be burnt to a crisp.

you get that, right?

[moriah]

18. Yes, I do.

That's why when I did have a kitchen fire in our house that far away, I picked up the phone, dialed 911, grabbed the extinguisher, and was telling them how to get to my house while I was using the extinguisher.

One of the VFD guys, it turns out, lived five minutes away, and that's who they called to come out. I had it out by the time he got there.

I apologized for having to get him out there when I could put it out myself, and he said that he would much rather get 100 calls like that one than the one call from someone who had tried to put it out, couldn't, and then called.

------

The only other time I've had to call the VFD out there was when there was a rather large unattended fire -- someone apparently started burning trash in a barrel during a burn ban day, and then left the property. I was driving by and saw a grass fire next to the burn barrel that was spreading. I pulled to the house next door to it and started using my horn in the SOS pattern hoping that if there was anyone nearby they would hear it, and called 911.

No one responded to the SOS horn, but within 15 minutes three VFD guys were out and the four of us did manage to get it out, but a grass fire is not something to play with.

A similar grass fire had taken out two homes down in one of the canyons a few years before that -- they could only be gotten to via four-wheel-drive and were completely engulfed by the time they had navigated the roads to get down to where they were.

[1]

19. good for you. that's how you do it. n/t.

[Lochloosa]

22. And you are full of shit.

When I was young and workeed in the maintenance department for a major hospital, I had extensive training in fire safety and prevention.

The one thing that is drummed into you is to SOUND AN ALARM then evaluate trying to extinguish the fire.

Seconds can save lives.

[conscious evolution]

25. One shot from a F.E. put out a fire on an aviation gasoline truck.

If I had waited for the airport fire department to show up it would have been a disaster.The fuel truck caught fire in the middle of a row of aircraft parked wing tip to wing tip and tail to tail.With four more fuel trucks and a fuel tank farm at the end of the row.
Our fire training had taught me to give any fire at least one shot with the FE before running.In this instance it worked.
Talk about a high pucker factor.

[Liberty Belle]

20. You can also soak a blanket in water and smother a fire

in some cases.

Also be wary of wiring fires. We've had a couple over the years. If you smell smoke from a fusebox or inside walls, turn off the circuit and call the fire department. A smoldering wire can burst into flames and destroy an entire house within 10 minutes, fire officials told us.

Surge protectors are also a good idea, since power coming on after an outage can fry electrical equipment. A power surge once triggered a fire in our fusebox and destroyed an A/C condensor at our former residence.

Make sure your fire insurance is up to date and for full 100% replacement value of contents plus a reasonable contruction cost in current dollars to replace your home itself. Most people are severely underinsured. Make videos of your belongings in every room on a regular basis -- and store the video offsite so if there's a fire you'll have proof of what you lost. People I interviewed who did this had no problems with insurers after the wildfires in CA; those who didn't got screwed for the most part.

[conscious evolution]

26. Good advice on electrical fires.

Shut off the power first.Either hit the main breaker or pull the meter.By cutting off the heat source sometimes you can stop an electrical fire before it really gets going.

Important advice for electrical fires.NEVER USE WATER ON AN ELECTRICAL FIRE.WATER CONDUCTS ELECTRICITY AND CAN LEAD TO ELECTROCUTION.ONLY USE CHEMICAL EXTINGUISHERS ON ELECTRICAL FIRES.

[ColbertWatcher]

21. Actually I would argue that fires are political.

That stove you were working on has to meet a standard before it got to your house. The electricity or gas that it uses is also regulated.

The distance between those cabinets and your stove is also prescribed as well.

Not to mention those doors you close to protect the rest of the house from a spreading fire must meet a standard as well.

There have been many tragic fires in this country and we've learned from each one of them. From requiring fire exits, fire escapes, fire extinguishers and sprinkler systems to placing occupancy limits on rooms and buildings, regulating building materials as well as regulating electricity and natural gas.

For every tragic fire, there were survivors advocating for improvements and building owners, business people and insurance companies fighting against them.

Yeah, even fire is political.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, 1911
* Iroquois Theatre Fire, 1903

[notadmblnd]

23. We got to beat our mom up once and she was very appreciative of it

She was heating soup and had turned around and leaned up against the stove, probbly to shout out orders to us. When she turned back around to attend to the soup, she was on fire. I pushed her to the ground and my sister who was cleaning the toilet at the time, came out and beat the fire out with the toilet brush. We were only 8 and 9 years old. My mom had some pretty bad burns on her back, but recovered completely from it.

[conscious evolution]

27. NEVER,EVER USE WATER ON GREASE OR ELECTRICAL FIRES

In case of electrical fires waters conductivity can lead to electrocution.
In case of grease or fuel fires water can cause the fire to spread on top of the water.

Always use ABC type Fire Extinguishers for these types of fires.