Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsEasily Deploys, but Not Fireproof
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2021
Last night, a small grease fire in my kitchen presented a rare opportunity to write a real review. The fire occurred in a ten inch skillet in the middle of my stove. It was contained to the pan, and might never have spread elsewhere, but flames were leaping over a foot out the pan, so it seemed prudent to take action. I immediately went for the cabinet that used to house the fire extinguisher and this fire blanket and saw that someone else had moved the extinguisher (yikes). Good thing, I had the presence of mind to also buy this blanket, right? I pulled the blanket out and quickly deployed it over the stove top. For one, beautiful second it appeared to work. But, then the smell started—the toxic smell of burning blanket—and I realized that not only had the blanket failed to suffocate the small fire, but that the blanket itself was now fueling the fire. Bad. That was bad. Fortunately, the blanket has a slow burn time, so I had a critical thirty seconds to a minute to hunt for my fire extinguisher and successfully deploy it. But make no mistake, in the race between fire and blanket, fire would win, burning through the blanket before the blanket could suffocate it. By the time I got the extinguisher, the blanket had melted enough to let a small amount of air in. And this was not a big fire. As it was, I had no choice but to deploy the (very messy) fire extinguisher. While cleaning up the fire extinguisher powder, I had time to contemplate other alternatives too. If I had thrown a large metal pot lid on the skillet, for example, I would have been a lot more successful at suffocating the fire. That would have been so much smarter! And even a wet towel would probably have better odds. Of course, a pot lid takes more skill to aim while keeping a safe distance from the fire, and wetting a towel takes time, but still both seem better than this blanket, and *might* have avoided the need for a huge fire extinguisher mess in my kitchen. Of course, though there is still no substitute for having a good fire extinguisher on hand. If you learn nothing else from this review, please know that this blanket is NEVER EVER a replacement for your fire extinguisher, and you should KNOW WHERE YOUR FIRE EXTINGUISHER IS AT ALL TIMES.
So, in the end, good things about the blanket: it deploys easily, and it may buy you some critical seconds to find another way to extinguish the fire. But, you are going to need another way to extinguish that fire. The blanket will not extinguish the fire alone, and it smells really bad as it burns.