Streamer Kjanecaron was doing a subathon earlier today for her 92,000 followers and decided to spend some of that time doing some cooking. It was a bad idea.
As you can see in this video below, Kjanecaron had a camera setup in her kitchen to film herself cooking, and by the time this clip has started there is already smoke filling the kitchen, likely because she’s got the cooktop turned up too high and the pan has overheated.
It doesn’t take long for the food — whatever it is/was — to catch fire, which is when she makes a big mistake.
I’ve already seen people laughing at this in tweets/replies, making fun of her cooking and cries for help, but this is no joke. I know I’ve been at this website for a long time, but my last job was with NSW Fire & Rescue (in recruitment, not as a firefighter), and above all else kitchen fires were the main thing we would spend our time educating people on.
They’re the leading cause of home fires, partly because they happen so often but also because in situations like this they can be catastrophic. The initial fire started here on the cooktop is a fairly minor thing, we’ve all torched something by accident at some point in our lives, but running some water on it — despite this seeming like the best option — is what turns this into a life-threatening situation.
Pouring water on a grease fire is like pouring gasoline on it, only in some ways even worse. Adding water to burning oil at that temperature causes the water to sink instantly to the bottom — since oil and water don’t mix — where it becomes superheated against the pan, then explodes to get out. Watch what happens in this more controlled example to this little pan fire when a cup of water is added to it:
In Kjanecaron’s case, she was extremely lucky. You can see a small part of the cooking spill out and continue burning on the cooktop; if any of that had splashed against the cabinetry this could have quickly turned into a life-threatening situation. Instead, all she ended up with was a small burn to her hand.
So yeah, while it’s very easy for people to laugh at this, if you get anything out of the video at all, it’s the knowledge — or a reminder — that hey, don’t ever put water on a burning oil/grease fire. Instead, turn off the cooktop (if you can) and use a fire extinguisher or fire blanket on it before calling your local fire brigade.
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