A few days ago I was preheating my oven to 450 degrees for some reason or another.

As I'm messing around in the kitchen, my eyes were suddenly drawn to a big orange flame... IN MY OVEN! (I suppose it needed a good scrubbing).

Anyway, I stood there looking at the flame trying to remember if it was flour or baking soda that made fire worse. I did not want to have to use the fire extinguisher in my oven. I think it was baking soda that makes it worse... but no, maybe it's flour because that seems more unlikely. Well maybe as long as I don't open the door it will just suffocate itself.... *STILL BURNING* well hell, I'll google it.... no that's stupid, there's no time for that... call the husband and ask him which one (flour or baking soda) makes the fire worse... *STILL BURNING*... ring, ring, no answer. Crap what if something in there blows up.... ok, I'm gonna use flour.... but what if it blows up.... oh crap, i really don't even know how to use the fire extinguiser, and it will be such a mess.... *and then the fire ran out of oxygen and just went out.*

So. that was my survival experience. Things I learned:

1. Flour makes the fire worse (google)
2. Learn to use a fire extinguisher
3. If u can't handle a small kitchen fire, how are you going to handle some disaster!
4. Clean the oven more often.
5. the fire WILL burn itself out if u don't give it oxygen.

A little factoid: flour dust can actually explode (actually extremely rapid combustion, perhaps some chemist cam elaborate), due to the small particle size.

You learned from this eperience.

Actually, ANY food/grain dust can do that.

Food = Fuel. Fuel + Fire = Bad.

Baking Soda is a good fire extinguisher because it releases Carbon Dioxide when it's heated. (I learned that on this very forum!)


Glad you came through okay!

You gonna buy a kitchen fire extinguisher, now?

Contact the base fire department and ask them when the next time they will be offering fire extinguisher training. I work at Ft. Detrick and the base fire department offers such training several times per year, so I would expect the same offerings at other bases. If the training is not coming up soon, ask them if they would put on a special class, if you got some of the neighbors together. At the same time, they could provide other fire prevention information, which would be beneficial.

Pete

Baking soda is great in ovens.
Mix up a cup of backing soda and water, paint the paste onto the walls of the oven and it hardens like a furnace lining. Any little baking incidents will stick to the coating and once a year you just brush it off.

You can also pour a box of baking powder in the bottom of the oven - it will absorb any spills. When it gets too gross just sweep out and replace.

Never clean an oven again !

So the baking soda eventually turns into sodium carbonate after being heated at high temp right? Silly question. Is soda ash corrosive and will it damage the oven coating?

I was at a friend's for dinner. The roast overflowed and started a rather impressive grease fire in the oven. A couple of handfuls of baking soda, and then closing the oven door, knocked it out in less than ten seconds.

By that time, the alarm company dispatched the fire department, despite verbal assurance that everything was under control. I suspect they use a two-stage smoke detector, which indicated a "fast growing fire" situation.

The fire crew were thorough, checking the actual source instead of waiting at the door (correct action IMO). They have seen grease fires before. I think they were just glad to get out of the station and roar around with the sirens wailing (kidding!).

The good news: the roast survived! I'm glad we didn't have to use a fire extinguisher -- kills fire and edibility/appetite in one shot.

Until Blast or another Chemist checks in, this is what I found on the web:

It takes a temp of 50°C/120°F to cause Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) to begin to decompose into Sodium Carbonate and Carbon Dioxide. Higher temps speed the reaction. It's used routinely in cooking as a leavening agent, both from reactions with acidic liquids, and from heat.

While ingesting large amounts can damage the digestive tract, small amounts like in food after cooking are harmless. When you take Sodium Bicarbonate for stomach trouble, the same reaction occurs with stomach acid.

I couldn't find much to indicate that Sodium Carbonate/Soda Ash will corrode metal under normal circumstances, but there were enough warnings about eye contact that I'd be careful when cleaning the residue out of the oven.

Yeah, what Computergeek said...

-Blast

Flour + fire = BAD.

But when done under the right circumstances the following equation may occur: Flour + fire = FUN.

Children, don't try this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9IB-7nSiS8

Here's a shortened version of the above link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1TIozKhJaA&NR=1