Slide the lid over the pan

Heat off, lid on from the side, leave it. Five separate conversations say to turn off the burner alongside smothering, because the oil can reignite from the heat; five say the fire is put out by cutting off its air with a lid, a metal tray or a larger pan, and two more say the same in fewer words. The people here corrected each other on the lid, and the correction is the one to keep: do not drop it straight down onto the pan — three cautions rated high say that pushes a rush of air into the flame and sprays burning oil — slide it across from one edge, with your arm at the side rather than over the pan. Then leave it. Two cautions rated high and a third say the pan stays dangerously hot for a long time and the fire relights if you lift the lid to check; one account says a lid sucked tight onto a cooling pan is normal, and another says to expect a lot of smoke. One caution says a glass lid can shatter in the heat, so a metal one is better; two conversations say a fire blanket is the safer cover for a chip pan or a fryer, and one account keeps one next to the cooker. This page checked the sequence against the US and UK fire services’ own published guidance, and it is the same: heat off, lid on, leave it. What you do not do is the rest of the page: water, flour, moving the pan, opening the oven. And the fence sits over all of it — if the flames are not out the moment the lid is on, or the fire has left the pan, one caution rated high says leave, shut the door, and call from outside.

Because water under hot oil becomes steam in an instant and throws the burning oil into the room — five conversations say so, eleven contraindications say so in one form or another, and five corrections in these conversations argue only about the mechanism. The version the corrections settle on: the water sinks below the oil because it is heavier, flashes to steam — expanding enormously as it does — and blasts upward, carrying burning oil with it as a spray and a cloud; one account says even a small splash turns a pot fire into a kitchen fire. Two accounts describe the fireball from water; the accounts argue about how tall it was, and this page does not need the number. A water-based extinguisher does the same thing, one contraindication says. The oven is the other case. Four separate conversations say that if a fire starts inside the oven, do not open the door — opening it feeds the flames with air — and turn the oven off; three contraindications say the same. One correction changes why, and this page carries it: two accounts point out that a domestic oven is not airtight — it vents — so a closed door may not starve the fire out — one caution says it may not stop a spreading fire — and the door stays shut to contain it; a caution rated high says the oven’s own insulation and lining can burn, and the fire may not stop on its own. So: heat off, door shut, and watch it from a step back with the exit behind you. If the flames are dying, wait until they are gone and the oven is cold before you open it. If they are growing, or smoke is coming out round the door, that is the fence: out, door shut, call. One exchange, one account to three, argues whether to smother an oven fire by waiting or to use a rated extinguisher at once; the decider the accounts give is whether the fire is contained and whether you have the extinguisher within reach — which is the next question.

The lid before any of them; then an extinguisher if you own one; then soda or salt only for a very small fire with no lid to hand — and never the other powders. Nine separate conversations keep a box of baking soda by the stove as the thing to throw on a small grease fire when there is no lid or no extinguisher, and three say it works on a small oven fire too; two conversations say salt does the same job. Two things the people here corrected, hard. It must be baking soda, not baking powder — three corrections say it must be baking soda and not powder, and one of them says why: the powder’s starch burns. And never flour: three conversations, two more, a run of contraindications, two corrections and three cautions rated high say flour thrown at a fire disperses into a dust cloud that can ignite explosively — one account who had once used it on a friend’s stove was told to delete the comment — and the same goes for sugar and powdered coffee creamer, which two contraindications name. Now the argument, which the people here have across three conversations on one side and two on the other, three accounts to three: one side says baking soda is a sufficient, life-saving tool for a small kitchen fire, especially in a home with no extinguisher; the other says relying on it is risky next to a proper rated extinguisher, which should be the first tool if you have one. The accounts’ own decider is whether you have the extinguisher within reach, and this page adopts it: a lid first, because it is always there; a rated kitchen extinguisher if you own one, aimed at the base of the fire as two conversations say; and a lot of baking soda — a whole box, not a pinch — or salt, only on a fire small enough to bury, when neither of the first two is to hand. One caution says salt ruins the food, which is the least of your problems. Nine conversations say to keep the soda where you can reach it in the kitchen, and one exchange argues where the extinguisher should live — in the cupboard by the stove for speed, or away from it so you are not reaching through fire to get it; the accounts’ decider is weighing nearness against being able to reach it in a panic.

A fryer is a pan with a plug, and the moment to leave is the moment it is not working. For a deep fryer or a chip pan, the accounts’ sequence is the same as the stovetop — heat off, or the plug pulled if you can reach it without leaning over the oil, then the lid or a fire blanket slid across; one caution rated high says that if a fryer has overflowed with burning oil, stay back until it settles rather than fighting it up close, and two conversations say a fire blanket is the safer cover than a towel. Do not move a burning pan or fryer: two cautions rated high say a spill spreads the fire, and this page refuses the suggestion to carry a pan outside — the accounts’ own cautions are against it. One correction in these conversations notes that modern countertop fryers are enclosed and less prone to the old chip-pan fire than an open pan of oil on a hob; the sequence does not change. Now the fence, which one caution rated high states and the US and UK fire services’ guidance states too: if the flames get worse, refuse to go out, or have spread beyond the pan or the oven — stop. Get everyone out, close the door behind you, and call the emergency number from outside — the door and the outside are the US and UK fire services’ words, this page’s own line, not the accounts’. One account says people perform badly in emergencies unless they have drilled the specific moves, which is why the try-it box asks you to say the sequence once today. One exchange, one account each way, is whether to reach for the baking soda during an active oven fire or to call the fire service at once — the second side says searching online mid-fire is dangerous — and the answer this page gives is that you are reading this now so that you do not have to then. What the accounts do not cover, and this page names as gaps: a fire that has already left the appliance before anyone calls for help, an electrical fire, and fires in a microwave or a toaster — for the last, one correction and one theme say no metal at all in a microwave, and the US and UK fire services’ guidance for a microwave is the oven’s — this page’s own line, from that guidance, not the accounts’: door shut, unplug if you safely can, and out if it grows.

A lid that fits, and one of two things the accounts recommend buying. The lid is free: find the metal one that covers your largest frying pan and keep it where you cook. Then the accounts, one each unless marked: a rated extinguisher — in the US the kind marked B or K is for cooking oil, and one account says a general ABC unit is usually adequate for a home kitchen while K is better; one contraindication says a tiny novelty extinguisher may be no use at all; two conversations say to discharge it at the base of the flames; one caution says to check the expiry, which varies by maker; one account calls it cheap insurance against a house. Or a fire blanket, which two conversations prefer to a towel for a pan or fryer, because it cannot be too wet or too dry. The damp tea towel the older advice recommended is argued here: two conversations mention it, and one caution rated high and one more say a towel that is dripping makes the fire worse — the water again — and one that is too dry catches; one account draped an apron over a pan to buy the seconds to find a lid, and a caution says the apron will likely burn. Two habits the people here keep that are not about the fire itself: nothing flammable stored beside the hob — towels, packaging, one contraindication adds ammunition — and, one account says, an induction hob has no flame to start one. One prevalence note says two accounts have forgotten flammable things in an oven, and one puts frozen pizza in on its cardboard; it is the oven fire the accounts describe. And the honest last line, from one account: nobody rises to an emergency — they fall back on what they drilled. Say the sequence today.