The Queensland Fire Service have an excellent fire demonstration mobile kitchen. It is made of stainless steel so that it can be used without damage. The demo is all about NEVER using water on a cooking oil fire. A cup of ordinary cooking oil is left in a saucepan until ignition occurs. A first the flame is quite low and non-threatening. After a few minutes of burning it reaches the stage of the picture at left below. At this point in your RV it could be reaching curtains and overhead cupboards.

In the demo first up the fire is extinguished simply by placing the lid on the pot. This worked quite well BUT the fire was still there when the lid was lifted off again. Next a fire blanket was used to smother the flames. Again this worked well BUT it was stressed that care must be taken not to tip the pot over. To us it appeared to us to be far less dangerous to use the fire blanket as it tended to protect your hands.

At this point half a cup of water was added to the pan (on a long stick!!!) and the photo above right was the truly horrific result. The moral of this story is NEVER use water to extinguish a cooking fire involving fat or oil. In this case the fire INSTANTLY filled the entire kitchen, and you would have just about zero chance of escaping. If you get the chance we urge you to attend one of these demonstrations as you will learn so much.