In article ,
dave writes:
Last night saw the oven/grill catch fire - due frankly, to it needing a clean
and we were in a rush. We don't normally let it get like that but did on this
occasion. Fortunately is extingushed itself in a few seconds but I got to
looking around to see what we needed in the case of a real kitchen fire.

First off, there is polystyrene coving on the ceiling about the cooker (put
there by previous owner) so that'll have to go.

Also, make sure you have a kitchen door which closes. If you give up
trying to extinguish a fire, closing the door as you leave will help
reduce damage to rest of house. Even if you do extinguish a fire,
closing the door will help reduce the stench which will infect the
rest of the house.

Then I though maybe it's worth getting a fire blanket - the kind that lives in a
cylinder and has tapes to put 'n throw.

Fire blanket is the ideal thing to have if you do any frying (shallow
or deep fat). You don't throw it on, you hold it up by the tapes/corners
to shield you as you approch the pan and then lay it over the top.
Practice with it (without a fire) before you need to use it for real.
If you ever get the opportunity to go on a proper fire training course
at work where you will put out such fires for real, leap at the chance.

Finally a fire extingushed. Wifey says she's heard of a new kind available that
turns "fat to soap". Anyone know what it's called and who may sell such a thing?

Not heard of that. (Soap is mostly fat anyway, which is why mice eat it.)
A dry powder extinguisher is the only type I would consider in a kitchen.
Water or CO2 would be dangerous to use and far more likely to make any
kitchen fire worse. However, a fire extinguisher is almost completely
useless unless you have been trained to use it. In untrained hands, they
are often only worth attempting to use if you need to do so to save your
life, e.g. to make an escape route viable -- that seems like an unlikely
scenario in a kitchen.

--
Andrew Gabriel