bearisgray

This has not happened to me - but several people have said their irons have caught on fire or smoldered.

What did you do?

How did you put out the fire without damaging yourself?

sewingpup

don't really know....but for sure...unplug it if you can do so safely....(don't want to shock yourself don't pour water on it if plugged in) I would then use my fire extinguisher if I had one, or maybe throw a big pot over it to cut off the oxygen supply or maybe just run out of the house and call the fire department. Don't know how big the flames would be. I had a dryer once where the lint somehow caught on fire...so when I opened the door...there was the flame....I yelled and slammed the door shut again. Thankfully, the fire extinguished itself. good thing.(maybe the wet clothes?) ..because I just stood there thinking what to do. Housefires have been started by this happening.

tropit

Unplug it and throw it away.

~ C

bearisgray

Or equally important -

What not to do?

Beachbaby12

Some time ago, I bought an old antique iron - it heated up quickly, I got burned and started to almost make a flame - unplug it and all was safe again.

juliasb

Fire of any kind that is out of my control scares the living daylights out of me!! When I was a young teen I saw what could happen and I lost two people very dear to me. We keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and go though occasional fire drills to keep both DH and I on our toes and panic do a dull roar. Being careful with an iron is the first line of defense and never use an iron with any cord issues including being taped is areas. Nope, no self repairs. Fire can move very fast. Don't be a fool if it is taller than your waist call 911! and then get out! My friends were not that fortunate. If there is smoke fire follows so unplug the iron if you can. Put the closet blanket, quilt (hopefully and older one), life is more important that a quilt. or even towel over the fire to try and put it out if this fails the fire extinguisher is next. Also throw away the offending iron asap! It will never be safe. Remember smoke usually comes first and unplug. No water if you cannot unplug that can cause a greater problem. Put pride aside and call 911 and get out!

Marich52

I just threw away an iron. Luckily, I unplug my iron when I am done using it or I would never have noticed that the plug was getting hot. Started out as just a warm feeling and then it turned into so hot I could hardly touch it to unplug it. I am sure the next step would have been a fire. If I had it plugged into a secondary device like a suge protector that I turned on and off where I never touched the plug, I would never have known there was a problem. Yikes!

Rhonda K

Know where the fire extinguisher is located and how to use one. Shut off the breaker.

FYI: Not related to the iron issue. Know how to shut off the water in your house too.

Peckish

I would unplug the iron if the cord was not too hot. If it was hot, I'd probably grab a chunk of fabric close by (because let's face it, there's *always* a chunk of fabric close by) and use it as an oven mitt to unplug the iron. I have fire extinguishers located in several areas of my house - the kitchen, the garage, and the laundry room (which is at the other end of the house). The fire extinguishers are ABC rated, which means I can put out burning wood, plastics, paper, grease, gasoline, and electrical fires.

When I was a child, our electric stove started arcing and spitting out flames from the push-button selectors.

As an adult, my husband and I have dealt with several issues: the wiring harness in our washing machine fried and started smoking. We caught it right away because a) we were home and b) we had installed a smoke detector in the laundry room. We also had a defective circuit breaker that came into contact with an unfortunate bug, the circuit breaker was for our hot tub and started shooting what my husband described as plasma 10 feet high. He ran for the fire extinguisher we had in the garage while I called 911. He had the fire out by the time the trucks got here, the firemen told us we would have lost our master bedroom, half the kitchen, and a good chunk of our roof if we had no extinguisher. The repairs were minor - replaced the electrical panel, all the breakers, some of the insulation that was inside the wall, and a coat of paint.

Keep fire extinguishers in multiple locations in your home, and know how to use them. In my opinion, smoke alarms are not enough!

p.s. My grandfather was a firemen, and one of my closest friends is a fireman. They both have told me the number one cause of house fires is toasters, second is hair dryers/curling irons. Unplug them when you aren't using them, yes even the toaster!

Granchris

I have a Fire Extinguisher easily accessible from every room in my house. Even my youngest grandchild knows how to use one. The fire dept showed him how and taught him how to exit the house safely. Never leave irons, dryers or ovens on. If I turn an iron on I put a hair rubber band on my arm so I will remember to turn it off ie unplug it.