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Add The New York Post on Google Cooking for someone you love can set your heart and home ablaze.
My high school sweetheart (now ex) and I found this out the hard way.
We were driving around in his silver Mustang, running errands on a day off from school, when I declared, “I want French fries.” My ex, who loved cooking enough that he’d later graduate from the Culinary Institute of America, offered to make some when we returned to his mom’s house, but I wasn’t interested. I wanted Burger King French fries.
He thought I was being dumb. “Do you know how many girls would love to have a boyfriend who cooked for them?” I could feel myself losing my appetite. “I think you’re a great cook, but you can’t make fries like BK. They have a specific taste.”
“I bet I can,” he said, and then he drove us back to the house where he could show off his skills. “You don’t even have a deep fryer,” I said to him while he was pulling out cooking tools. He looked at me with a smirk. “I don’t need one,” and that’s when I watched him pull out a metal colander and place it into the giant pasta pot he had filled with vegetable oil. I asked, “Is that safe?” He assured me it was.
Some time when we weren’t paying attention (and let’s face it, that was pretty soon, because we were teenagers and blasting music and talking instead of watching the stove), the oil became too hot, bubbled over and whoosh! Flames everywhere.
I screamed, “Fire, fire!” along with a few expletives. “Grab the pot!”
It’s embarrassing to say that at 16 years old, I didn’t know the proper protocol for handling a grease fire. I’m sure it was covered in some educational program I watched as a kid, but in the moment I went completely blank.
Now I know you’re supposed to turn off the burner and smother the flame. Another option would have been to grab something like the Ougist Multipurpose Fire Extinguisher, which can handle Class K fires, as well as Class A (combustibles), B (liquids and gases) and C (electrical).
Maybe there was a fire extinguisher on the kitchen windowsill — I honestly don’t remember now — but if there was, I wouldn’t have known how to use it. That’s why experts recommend practicing before emergencies arise, as well as testing them so you know they’re working properly. What makes the Ougist fire extinguisher my preference now is its pull-and-press mechanism. No pins, squeezing or any “how does this work?” moments when you don’t have the time to ask.
According to the City of New York’s Fire Department, 33% of home fires come from unattended cooking accidents, so it’s really one of those things everyone should have in their home.
My boyfriend grabbed the pot with the intent of throwing it into the garage. (For context, it was empty, the sink was filled with dishes and both of us were panicking. Also, it was my genius idea.)
And then he tripped and oil spilled on his hands and feet.
It was like someone doused in gasoline coming into contact with a lit match.
He still managed to hurl the pot into the garage, where it landed right side up, still ballooning with flames. I screamed, “Roll! Roll!”
Technically, more helpful than telling him to throw a flaming pot of oil into a garage, but not as helpful as it would have been if we had something like an emergency fire blanket handy. Like an extinguisher, it’s something everyone should have, and may be even easier to use, because all one needs to do is pull the tab, grab the blanket and smother the flame. Plus, they come in a very compact package, so they’re easy to tuck into a cupboard or drawer. As long as everyone in the family knows where it it, you should be set.
Since we didn’t have an emergency blanket in the house, rolling around on the ground was the next best option for my then-boyfriend.
With the flames out, I could see the damage to his skin, now charred like a marshmallow, oozing and red.
At the hospital, we discovered he had sustained second and third-degree burns. Bad, but it could have been a lot worse.
Extinguishers and fire blankets aren’t fun or trendy products — and they’re not supposed to be. They’re meant to be there for worst-case scenarios, which happen more than most of us want to think. If you’ve never experienced something similar to the story above, consider yourself lucky and take this as your unofficial PSA: be prepared or be sorry. As of 2024, more than 100,000 people died from preventable accidents in the home, including fires.
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