Mandatory fire extinguishers in kitchens could save lives, hassle and money, believes Walaa Ibrahim.
The Guelph woman, who moved here from the United Arab Emirates in 2019, is living in a hotel room with her three teenage daughters following a Jan. 12 incident she says would have been much less significant if there had been an extinguisher handy.
“It was a small fire … and I could easily handle it,” she said, noting she was trained to fight fires when she worked as a flight attendant. “I had nothing to do but put the oven off. … I just took my three girls and we ran out of the house.”
Ibrahim and her daughters were watching TV in the living room of their Severn Drive townhouse at about 9 p.m. when a fire broke out in the kitchen.
After deciding to bake something to eat, her 15-year-old daughter turned the oven on and returned to the living room while it warmed. About four minutes later, they smelled something burning and Ibrahim raced to the kitchen to find flames in the oven.
It turns out an electric fryer had been left inside.
Ibrahim said the fryer plastic was melting directly on the oven coils and oil inside was boiling. She was "shocked" to discover there was no fire extinguisher and knew putting water on it would only make matters worse – because oil and water don’t mix, it would spread the flames – so they fled and called firefighters.
In the United Arab Emirates, “every single unit, whether a high rise, old buildings, houses, there’s always a fire extinguisher in the kitchen,” she said, suggesting the same should be true in Ontario. “I believe if they take this into consideration, we will save lives and hassle, and we’ll save the insurance companies lots of money too.”
Because not everyone has had fire training, Ibrahim suggests a training video be made for “simple fires” and available for viewing.
Firefighters took only a few minutes to douse the flames, but the damage was significant enough that Ibrahim and her daughters could be living in a hotel room for a month while repairs are made, she said.
“I saw the very good side of Canada after it happened,” Ibrahim said of the fire, noting Victim Services stepped up with financial aid, a hotel for three days and gift cards to buy clothes and food. “They’re really good to us. I feel protected after.”
Though some insurance companies require or offer a discount if there is a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, they are not mandatory in Ontario.
“In most cases, the best thing to do in a home fire is to get everyone out of the home immediately and call the fire department from outside,” states the provincial fire safety and public education website, run by the Ministry of the Solicitor General. “Many people who decide to purchase a fire extinguisher might not know how or when to use them.”