After a pot of oil caught alight in the kitchen, a patient sustained second degree burns requiring admission to the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital ER. The patient sustained burns to both forearms and hands as detailed by the gallery of images bellow. The burn wounds required surgical debridement and the appropriate dressing of the wounds in sterile environment of the operating theatre.
The patient has since been discharged with no loss of function and only minimal evidence of the burn (the following pictures where taken 2 months post incident):
- Fire in the United States 2003-2007 by the U.S. Fire Administration
With up to 76% of fires being in the home, one can begin to appreciate how the ignition of cooking oils plays a significant role in the problem of residential fires. Up to 40% of residential fires may be attributed to cooking and, an estimated two thirds of cooking fires begin with ignition of the cooking oil.
- Euro fire protection and maintenance service. Nov 2013
When fuel (cooking oil) is heated, the energy stored inside the fuel starts to react with oxygen in the air, giving off heat. This creates a vicious cycle, which causes the fire to spread. In order to stop the spread of a fire one of these elements needs to be removed in order to collapse the combustion triangle.
- DO NOT USE WATER ON A GREASE/ OIL FIRE!
- If possible, turn off the stove! The fire might go out with this simple step.
- Call your preferred emergency provider. There's no reason to wait.
- The easiest way to extinguish a stove top fire (oil burning in a pot) is to cover the pot with its lid. Be careful with glass lids as they may break from the extreme heat of open flame.
- Fires caused by burning oil in a pot can also be extinguished using baking soda, but it may take a lot of baking soda to be effective. Unless the baking soda is easily accessible, it's usually easier to quickly find a lid.
- A dry chemical fire extinguisher will also work, but will contaminate your kitchen and food.
- DO NOT PUT WATER ON A GREASE/ OIL FIRE! Pouring water on burning grease or oil will not extinguish the fire. It will only cause the burning oil to splash, spreading the oil and fire around.
- DO NOT TRY TO CARRY THE FIRE OUTSIDE! Trying to carry a pot or pan full of burning oil will just splash the oil and spread the fire.
- Treat burns only after the fire is contained. Call your preferred emergency provider if a serious burn is experienced. (please refer to previous post: Feeling the Heat of the Kitchen 12/7/2014)
- If clothes are caught on fire; STOP, DROP, and ROLL to extinguish them.
- Adapted from Rocky Mountain Fire (rockymountainfire.org)
An Injury and Prevention Awareness Project brought to you by Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital Trauma & Emergency Centre.