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Exercise on the fire protection mobile: A firefighter shows a fat explosion
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / dpa
A man suffered severe burn injuries on Sunday in a grease explosion in an apartment building in Langenfeld, in the Rhineland.
He was taken to a special clinic by helicopter, as reported by the Langenfeld fire brigade on Monday.
The man had tried to extinguish burning fat with water in the kitchen for a fondue.
There was an explosion followed by a kitchen fire.
Nobody else was hurt.
The fire brigade appealed to the population never to extinguish a grease fire with water, the high heat caused the water to evaporate explosively.
The fat particles could then ignite and form a fireball, a spokesman explained: "The burning pot should always be closed with a lid or a fire blanket."
After extinguishing, the fire brigade checked the kitchen with a thermal imaging camera and ventilated the entire building.
After that, all apartments could be used again, except for the apartment affected by the fire.
ipp/dpa
