Something that has been long made aware to those in the food industry is the all to apparent and irritating danger of fire. It comes in many forms in the kitchen, flambé, from the stove and sometimes from burnt food. Often they are minor and something that is more of an irritant than a danger as it puts the team in the kitchen behind and it's a bit of mess to clean up afterwards. From a personal point of view for the chef it is most upsetting as it represents a loss of control in both technique and timing. Most of the time though these small fires are quickly and safely dealt with. This is because as professionals they know what they are doing and how to handle such events. The same could not be said for many less informed food enthusiasts.
At universities up and down the UK at least, the fire brigade is called out almost every Saturday to put out a fire in a student residence that ends up either gutting the kitchen, or seriously damaging the house. You'd be surprised at the amount there actually is of this event. As such during freshers week the fire service is often seen outside the front of the main building doing a demonstration of what not to do when a particular fire is started. This is the most frequent and dangerous of fires. The oil fire. The reason behind this is, as common knowledge suggests that if something is on fire, you add water to put it out. If you've ever seen one of these demonstrations you'll know that this is in fact the exact opposite of what you should do. Even half a cup of water to your average chip pan fire will result in a catastrophic explosion, large enough to consume the entire average student kitchen and set everything inside ablaze. It's actually very scary to see.
The second reason why this type of fire is so dangerous is because they almost always happen when the person making the food is drunk. They come home after a long night of heavy boozing and decide that they have the beer munchies. We've all done it and we're all guilt of doing it. Several times during my travels in New Zealand there were instances of people almost setting the house on fire due to this exact scenario. The pan is left on the heat and the oil catches fire as the protagonist has forgotten. There was a large campaign in NZ that highlighted this. It was imaginatively called the, 'Don't drink and fry,' campaign. Either way it's an important message. So to end this blog we at YesChef! would like to give you the answer to what to do if this ever happens to you. Not that it ever would, you are all experts in the kitchen of course! If the pan does set alight, turn off the heat, remove the pan from the heat source and cover with a damp tea towel. This stops the fire from getting oxygen to burn and promptly extinguishes itself. No need for the fire department or a new kitchen!
Keep on cooking and be safe.
YesChef!
At universities up and down the UK at least, the fire brigade is called out almost every Saturday to put out a fire in a student residence that ends up either gutting the kitchen, or seriously damaging the house. You'd be surprised at the amount there actually is of this event. As such during freshers week the fire service is often seen outside the front of the main building doing a demonstration of what not to do when a particular fire is started. This is the most frequent and dangerous of fires. The oil fire. The reason behind this is, as common knowledge suggests that if something is on fire, you add water to put it out. If you've ever seen one of these demonstrations you'll know that this is in fact the exact opposite of what you should do. Even half a cup of water to your average chip pan fire will result in a catastrophic explosion, large enough to consume the entire average student kitchen and set everything inside ablaze. It's actually very scary to see.
The second reason why this type of fire is so dangerous is because they almost always happen when the person making the food is drunk. They come home after a long night of heavy boozing and decide that they have the beer munchies. We've all done it and we're all guilt of doing it. Several times during my travels in New Zealand there were instances of people almost setting the house on fire due to this exact scenario. The pan is left on the heat and the oil catches fire as the protagonist has forgotten. There was a large campaign in NZ that highlighted this. It was imaginatively called the, 'Don't drink and fry,' campaign. Either way it's an important message. So to end this blog we at YesChef! would like to give you the answer to what to do if this ever happens to you. Not that it ever would, you are all experts in the kitchen of course! If the pan does set alight, turn off the heat, remove the pan from the heat source and cover with a damp tea towel. This stops the fire from getting oxygen to burn and promptly extinguishes itself. No need for the fire department or a new kitchen!
Keep on cooking and be safe.
YesChef!
No comments:
Post a Comment