I nearly had one last week
I had bought a supermarket creme brulee for dessert last week , still feeling a bit peckish after dinner off I went to prepare it, all that needed done was to caramelise the sugar, I use a blowtorch for this.
Well obviously being a man who likes toys I don't just have any old chefs blowtorch, I have a plumbers type that they use for soldering joints along with a 500ml cannister of gas attached to it.
Anyways I turned on the gas and pressed the ignition (something I'd done hundreds of times), the gas lit and all was fine...
Then something happened that really needed the Benny Hill theme to have kicked in
Another jet of gas ignited from under the connection to the cannister and it was aimed directly at my head , I of course did what any other brave and logical person would do in that situation and... promptly dropped the whole lot to the floor whilst letting out a few profanities, mainly rhyming with "clucking bell" as Blackadder put it.
My first priority was to extinguish it but I thought that by the time I managed to find something to do that the cabinets or even the wood cladded walls would have ignited too as the torch flame was shortish, blue and extremely hot and the leak flame was more orange, still quite hot but about 15" long and had quite a girth.
Luckily my rear exit (snigger) is just a few metres away through a doorway then a left turn.
Keeping totally calm
I started to kick the fireball towards the exit into the backyard, sounds easy doesn't it?
Except that in that short space there's wood on the walls, 2 painted wooden doors, plastic cladding on another wall, a door mat and a plastic unit with various things on it, one of which is a pack of toilet rolls and it was right on the bottom rack :/
I manged to get past these hurdles by kicking it back and forth so nothing had a flame on it too long (is that logical?) heh, but then in my haste I'd forgotten about the back door key which was back where I started, I quickly left to get the key then thought to myself that this thing could explode any second, it's had intense heat on the can for what felt like ages, so I ran and got the dish from kitchen sink which was full of water and a few bits and bobs and threw it over the canniater hoping it would cool it a little and at least buy me some time.
I then got the key and door open and manages to get the fire into the yard, not ideal as there's a few flammable's there too but better than the house burning down!
By now I was paranoid it was going to explode so again I dowsed it with water before finally getting a damp towel and extinguishing the flames.
I left it to cool for a while, gas still hissing out under the towel then managed to switch it off. The cannister still feels like its got plenty left in it.
The torch is quite melted and I think a few minutes more things could have been worse.
Luckily there's no damage to the house except for black soot marks on the doors which has washed off.
looking back it seemed a ridiculous scenario and its tought me a few lessons
I have nothing "proper" to deal with a fire
Nearly Everything around my kitchen is flambale
Nearly everything on the way to the back exit is flamable
Fire is dangerous but with gas for fuel it's **** your pants time
I was totally unprepared.
I'm also going to buy a fire extinguisher or blanket, ensure access to my front and back doors are clear and limit flammable items around exit points.
I can laugh about it now but during that incident I remember thinking that either I was going to get set on fire trying to be a hero or the house was going to burn down.
Anyways that's my little story, what's yours?
I had bought a supermarket creme brulee for dessert last week , still feeling a bit peckish after dinner off I went to prepare it, all that needed done was to caramelise the sugar, I use a blowtorch for this.
Well obviously being a man who likes toys I don't just have any old chefs blowtorch, I have a plumbers type that they use for soldering joints along with a 500ml cannister of gas attached to it.
Anyways I turned on the gas and pressed the ignition (something I'd done hundreds of times), the gas lit and all was fine...
Then something happened that really needed the Benny Hill theme to have kicked in
Another jet of gas ignited from under the connection to the cannister and it was aimed directly at my head , I of course did what any other brave and logical person would do in that situation and... promptly dropped the whole lot to the floor whilst letting out a few profanities, mainly rhyming with "clucking bell" as Blackadder put it.
My first priority was to extinguish it but I thought that by the time I managed to find something to do that the cabinets or even the wood cladded walls would have ignited too as the torch flame was shortish, blue and extremely hot and the leak flame was more orange, still quite hot but about 15" long and had quite a girth.
Luckily my rear exit (snigger) is just a few metres away through a doorway then a left turn.
Keeping totally calm
I started to kick the fireball towards the exit into the backyard, sounds easy doesn't it? Except that in that short space there's wood on the walls, 2 painted wooden doors, plastic cladding on another wall, a door mat and a plastic unit with various things on it, one of which is a pack of toilet rolls and it was right on the bottom rack :/
I manged to get past these hurdles by kicking it back and forth so nothing had a flame on it too long (is that logical?) heh, but then in my haste I'd forgotten about the back door key which was back where I started, I quickly left to get the key then thought to myself that this thing could explode any second, it's had intense heat on the can for what felt like ages, so I ran and got the dish from kitchen sink which was full of water and a few bits and bobs and threw it over the canniater hoping it would cool it a little and at least buy me some time.
I then got the key and door open and manages to get the fire into the yard, not ideal as there's a few flammable's there too but better than the house burning down!
By now I was paranoid it was going to explode so again I dowsed it with water before finally getting a damp towel and extinguishing the flames.
I left it to cool for a while, gas still hissing out under the towel then managed to switch it off. The cannister still feels like its got plenty left in it.
The torch is quite melted and I think a few minutes more things could have been worse.
Luckily there's no damage to the house except for black soot marks on the doors which has washed off.
looking back it seemed a ridiculous scenario and its tought me a few lessons
I have nothing "proper" to deal with a fire
Nearly Everything around my kitchen is flambale
Nearly everything on the way to the back exit is flamable
Fire is dangerous but with gas for fuel it's **** your pants time
I was totally unprepared.
I'm also going to buy a fire extinguisher or blanket, ensure access to my front and back doors are clear and limit flammable items around exit points.
I can laugh about it now but during that incident I remember thinking that either I was going to get set on fire trying to be a hero or the house was going to burn down.
Anyways that's my little story, what's yours?
