A couple weeks ago I listened to A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher’s 2021 Lodestar Award-winning YA fantasy novel. I enjoyed it overall, but one sentence caught my engineer’s ear:
"Mercy!" said Aunt Tabitha, the first time she walked in and saw me standing over a pan of cinnamon rolls that had caught fire. She grabbed for the flour and dumped it out over the pan, smothering the flames.
I’d heard of explosions in flour mills and had the general idea that flour is pretty flammable. Here was a chance to m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶o̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ scientifically answer a question:
"Mercy!" said Aunt Tabitha, the first time she walked in and saw me standing over a pan of cinnamon rolls that had caught fire. She grabbed for the flour and dumped it out over the pan, smothering the flames.
I’d heard of explosions in flour mills and had the general idea that flour is pretty flammable. Here was a chance to m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶o̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ scientifically answer a question:
Is flour a good fire extinguisher?
T. Kingfisher, A Wizard’s Guide, Amazon
It’s good practice to follow the scientific method, even when the real goal is getting some slow-motion video of flames. Here goes:
Question: Should you try to put out a kitchen fire with flour?
Hypothesis: No. Flour is more likely to explode and cause more fire than it is to quench your main character's flaming cinnamon rolls.
Method: Light some c̶i̶n̶n̶a̶m̶o̶n̶ ̶r̶o̶l̶l̶s̶ wads of paper towel on fire and douse them with flour. Observe.
Setup:
Question: Should you try to put out a kitchen fire with flour?
Hypothesis: No. Flour is more likely to explode and cause more fire than it is to quench your main character's flaming cinnamon rolls.
Method: Light some c̶i̶n̶n̶a̶m̶o̶n̶ ̶r̶o̶l̶l̶s̶ wads of paper towel on fire and douse them with flour. Observe.
Setup:
Results:
- Attempt One caused a small flare-up and knocked one of my “cinnamon rolls” off of the tray.
- Attempt Two caused a very s̶a̶t̶i̶s̶f̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶y̶ terrifying and totally dangerous fireball.
- Attempt Three finally put out one of the flames… but mostly because the fire was out of paper towel.
Conclusion: Flour isn’t the best fire-putter-outer, but it’s not the catastrophic explosion-producing medium I was h̶o̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ afraid it would be. It can catch on fire as a fine dust, but it’s not super impressive in measuring cup quantities.
What about the epic flour-mill explosions I'd heard of? Turns out they're a real thing. Here's a video of a real one, followed by Mythbusters' attempt at determining whether one could destroy a silo:
What about the epic flour-mill explosions I'd heard of? Turns out they're a real thing. Here's a video of a real one, followed by Mythbusters' attempt at determining whether one could destroy a silo:
That’s all for today. If you enjoy the occasional light-hearted fantasy with a bit of snark and a dusting of social commentary, check out A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking – I gave it 3.5 stars for a quick fun read.