Firefighters responded within minutes to a kitchen grease fire in a Magna fourplex that started Saturday afternoon after residents attempted to extinguish it with water. Shortly before 12:30 p.m., a resident in one unit of the fourplex reported a kitchen fire that began while cooking, according to Unified Fire Authority PIO Kelly Bird. When someone threw water on the grease fire, it “made it exponentially worse,” Bird said.
Crews reached the building within minutes and quickly limited the fire to the kitchen. The rest of the unit sustained significant smoke damage and some water damage, Bird said.
The UFA was able to keep the fire from spreading beyond the kitchen. All residents were able to evacuate safely from the affected unit and three neighboring units. Only the occupants of the fire-damaged unit were displaced; the property owner is relocating the three residents to another unit, Bird said.
Bird wants to spread the message that the outcome could have been prevented if the residents covered the grease fire instead of attempting to put water on it.
