Fire Scare!

On Saturday night one of those things happened that I never thought ever would ... being such a uber responsible supermom and all (read with much sarcastic undertone). Yaasier had a lussie for popcorn, but seeing as all the microwave popcorn was up, I had to go back to old school oil-in-the-pot method. I have been very scatterbrained these last couple of weeks I don't know why, but this was really the cherry on top. I put the oil in the pot and smugly announced my old-fashioned popcorn-making knowledge by telling Yaasier that the secret to good pot popcorn is to let the oil get hot before adding the popcprn kernels so that the kernels don't absorb too much oil before popping. So while waiting for the oil to heat up I watched a bit of telly. Not long and I suddenly saw a faint smoke waft pass the light! I asked Yaasier very ignorantly, "what's that smoke?"... and then it dawned on me, "Oh shit! I forgot about the oil on the stove!"

I ran to the stove and saw the smoke filling up under the glass pot lid. Now I know how fire operates and despite thinking that it would never happen to me, I also always thought I would know exactly how to react in the event it did. The thing is when your fight/flight mechanism kicks in you sometimes tend to forget valuable knowledge. See when I saw the smoking pot what I should've done is turn off the stove, place a wet cloth over the lid and immediately take it outside to cool down before opening the lid.

Instead my immediate reaction when I saw the pot was to remove the lid and put on the extractor fan... DOH! How dumb was I? Anybody who knows the first thing about fire knows that the worst thing you can do for a potential fire is to expose it to oxygen! Not only did I expose the burning oil to oxygen, but I extracted the flammable fumes further into the air! So of course the pot caught alight!

Fortunately I quickly regained some good sense and gave Yaasier a cold lid to cover the flame with and turned off the exctractor fan, and removed the pot outside. Of course by then the whole downstairs was filled with smoke. Yaasier brought the huge fan down, we opened all the windows and doors and made sure all the doors to the rooms upstairs were closed so that the smoke couldn't penetrate the rooms where the children were sleeping. My eyes were burning, my throat was burning, but worst of all while we sat in the cold waiting for the smoke to clear I was wandering aimlessly up and down feeling racked with guilt and completely useless and irresponsible. It may have been a small little flame that was completely controllable, but I kept thinking that it could have been so much worse! I was so ashamed and upset with myself for allowing such a totally avoidable thing to happen. I almost didn't want to blog about this, but then I thought 'suck it up Tasneem, others can learn from your stupidity'. So here are some very important tips that hopefully nobody will ever need:

When discovering a fire or potential fire in the home:

1. Stay CALM
2. Assess the severity and if you have any doubt whatsoever that you can get it under control, evacuate the house immediately!
3. If you are absolutely certain that you can tackle the small blaze, assess the type of fire and act accordingly

There are 3 main types of fires:

• Paper/wood/clothing/other material: it is safe to douse this type of fire with water
• cooking oil/fat: DO NOT open the lid of the pot, if the pot is already open when a flame erupts, either put a lid over it or throw a damp cloth over the fire and turn off the stove. NEVER throw water over this type of fire, the burning fat will splatter possibly harming you or even spreading the fire!
• Electrical: FIRST switch off the mains! The best way to tackle an electrical flame is to cover it with BICARBONATE OF SODA. NEVER throw water on an electrical flame or one that is near to an electrical socket or you WILL SHOCK!

Finally it is important to know how to react in the event of minor skin burns. It is handy to have some burnshield spray or swabs on hand. In the old days when you burned yourself on the stove or the iron the older generation always used to put butter on the wound... WRONG!WRONG!WRONG!!! this is the worst thing you can do! Butter coats the burn and creates an ideal environment for bacteria thereby increasing the chance for infection. You also should not put ice on the burn as it may damage the skin further and do not put a bandage on the wound as it will delay healing time. The best thing you can do is to keep the area under cold running water for at least 5 minutes. If the burn is very minor you may then afterward cover the area with a healing cream such as aloe vera for some relief and to speed up the healing process.

Of course it all also depends on the severity of the burn and the cause. You can visit this link for more info: First Aid for Burns

All that being said, Prevention is Better than Cure! So please learn from my stupid mistake and DO NOT FORGET about the oil on the stove!

Love Me!