Is Cooking Oil Flammable?

By Staff WriterLast Updated March 25, 2020

All cooking oils are flammable when they reach a certain temperature. Cooking oil is rated by the National Fire Protection Association as a Class IIIB combustible liquid with a flash point of 200 C or greater.

The autoignition point of cooking oil, such as soybean, canola and olive oil, ranges from 400 C to 436 C. Nearly 75 percent of residential cooking fires start when cooking oil ignites after being left unattended or placed too close to the heat source. Cooking oil fires are especially dangerous because they quickly grow out of control and behave differently than fires caused by other sources of ignition.