• Question: Why did the chip pan start house fire’s in the 70s

    Asked by 824putk28 to Jake on 7 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Jake Langham

      Jake Langham answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      I’ve got to be honest with you – this is a very unusual and oddly specific question! Were there very many chip pan fires in the 70s? I did not know that. In general, chip pans catch fire because they are full of oil which is slightly flammable – it sets on fire if it gets too hot.

Comments

  • Photo: Senga

    Senga commented on :

    Yep, what Jake said but a little bit to add (because my granny had a chip pan fire….they really were a thing). So one of the things that caused chip pan fires was that, like jake said, when oil gets very hot it can go on fire, the problem is that a lot of the time when someone saw a fire they would throw water on it…which is the worst thing you can do when oil is on fire. Oil is “hydrophobic” meaning it hates water. If you’ve ever tried to mix oil and water you will see that the oil bunches together in the water in oily droplets….the oil in a chip pan does the same causing the fire to get WAAAY worse.

    On that note, if you ever have a chip pan fire get an adult to put a cold damp towel over the top of the pan, this will stop oxygen getting to the fire and the fire will quickly go out. 🙂