Kitchen ripped out to stop cooking fire

Firefighters had to pull the stove, some walls and the ceiling out of a Carson City woman's kitchen Saturday night to stop a cooking fire.

The unidentified woman was cooking chicken in a pan about 7:45 p.m. at the Tanglewood Townhouses in the 1100 block of Roop Street when a grease fire started. It went up into the fan above the stove, spreading into the walls.

"It really wasn't anything all that exciting, but it was labor intensive because we had to take out the stove, all the kitchen cabinets surrounding it, the wall behind the stove, and the ceiling above the kitchen," said Capt. Dave Miller with Carson City Fire Department Station 1.

No one was injured, but there was considerable water and structure damage, he said.

"We had to go ahead and take out a lot of drywall to expose the burned 2-by-4s," Miller said.

Firefighters also had to go upstairs and cut a hole in the floor above the kitchen to ensure there was no fire in the duct system.

The fire was extinguished within about 35 minutes, Miller said.

During a time of year when people are thinking about wildfires, they need to remember to be fire safe in the house as well.

"People need to make sure they never leave their stove unattended while they're cooking," Miller said.

He also said never to throw flour on a grease fire.

"That's the worst thing you can possibly do," he said. "Just put a lid on it or use the fire extinguisher everyone should have in their kitchen."

Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.