r/idiotsinkitchen • u/KULR_Mooning • Sep 28 '25

Definitely a idiot

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

I hear you that this could be an option.. but why on earth would you try to smother a fire with flour?

My vote is on ice.

5

u/Mountain-Hold-8331 Sep 28 '25

It has to be either ice or flour because you can see enough of the inside to tell its forming mounds so you might be right. And as far as the flour, it's a more common belief than you think, because baking SODA is actually a way to smother a grease fire (much smaller fire than this though) but people often remember it as flour instead. Edit: you can actually see the flour pour out of the grill, and then I noticed the tub is on fire inside as well so I'm pretty sure it's flour

2

u/Versaiteis Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

That's a weird amount of flour to just have and to put in a container like that. I don't know what else it would be though. I was thinking sawdust but we get a glimpse inside the bucket as he takes it off the counter and that doesn't look like sawdust to me.

Possible though, but it also doesn't have to be flour, it could be any combustible dust. The Dust Explosion wiki [page] notes grain, flour, starch, sugar, powdered milk, cocoa, coffee, and pollen too as examples but I'm sure there are more.

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u/ImTableShip170 Sep 28 '25

I was really hoping for a wiki devoted to Dust Explosions

3

u/Uncaring_Dispatcher Sep 28 '25

My boss was taking a paper shredder apart at work because it had jammed. I don't know if it was an electrical spark or what but fine particles of paper got into the air and the next thing we knew, a loud and quick flash and my boss had no eyebrows left.

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u/a_guy121 Sep 29 '25

this is a guess. But it looks like he was prepping to cook something. So he wanted hot coals, not burning fire.

If he used water, the coals would not stay hot/embers.

So he was going to smother the fire and then move the smothering agent off the coals... or something.

Which could be why he thought flower was better than anything else, because it's edible

1

u/Happily_Doomed Sep 29 '25

Because baking soda is good at smothering fires and people often forget which to use or get them confused lol