Donna Vincent learned what not to do for a grease fire when she took the burning pot and threw it in the sink. By throwing it into the sink, the grease splattered, catching the curtain on fire and then the fire spread, eventually burning her entire trailer.

That day, there was also a strong wind, which helped spread the fire in the mobile home.

That was a week ago, and Vincent and her boyfriend Mike Roach are still trying to get their lives back together after a grease fire caused their entire mobile to burn.

“We are not sure what we are going to do,” said Vincent as she looks through her burnt things in the mobile home. “We lost everything.”

On Wednesday, Vincent did have some positive news. Cindy Quebedeaux, who works for J.J. Mini Storage in Abbeville, contacted Vincent to tell her about some furniture she had in storage that she wanted to give her.

The furniture was left in storage by someone who did not pay their bill, so the storage company was looking to get rid of it. Vincent visited the storage company at noon to claim items she needed.

There is still one problem - she and Roach still need a place to live.

“We did not need much,” she said. “We’ll take a small camper. We just need a roof over our heads.”

A special account was set up at Vermilion Bank and Trust in Kaplan to help Vincent and Roach. If anyone has donations they would like to contribute to Vincent, her cell phone is 281-0484.

Vincent, who is originally from Cameron Parish, is recovering from burns she suffered by rescuing her pets in the fire. When she saw the mobile home quickly burning, she ran through her home in search of two dogs and three cats. She was able to rescue the two dogs and threw a cat out of the window.

“I wanted to go back for the two cats, but it was too bad,” she said.

The grease fire spread quickly because Vincent walked out of the kitchen and when she realized the pot of grease was on fire, it was too late.

Here are some instructions on how to put out a grease fire in the kitchen.

1 - Place a metal lid over the flame. Do not use glass since the heat from the fire can cause it to break.

2 - Smother the fire with a liberal amount of baking soda if it is relatively small and contained. Try finding a lid if possible. Because it requires so much baking soda to extinguish a fire, a lid is faster and generally more effective than baking soda.

3 - Spray the fire with a Class B dry chemical fire extinguisher. Use this method if it is your only option, because it will ruin food and contaminate kitchen dishes and utensils.

4 - Use a Class K wet chemical fire extinguisher if it is available. Though more effective for extinguishing large grease fires, these are generally found only in commercial settings.

5 - Call 911 immediately if the fire is not quickly extinguished or if it grows too large to be controlled.

Tips and warnings

Do not use any type of powdered baking product (such as flour) other than baking soda when trying to extinguish a grease fire. It may be flammable, and rather than putting out the flames, it might fuel them instead.

A fire extinguisher could potentially spread flames as you try to extinguish them, so be careful that this does not happen if you use a fire extinguisher on a grease fire.

Do not try dousing a grease fire with water under any circumstances. Water will not put out a grease fire.

Do not attempt to carry the flaming pan to the sink or outside. The pan will be too hot to transport, in addition to the likelihood that the grease will spill when you try to carry it. You will end up burning yourself and spreading the fire.

Read more: How to Put Out a Grease Fire | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2064704_put-out-grease-fire.html#ixzz14EWlRHJt