I wonder what the likely cause of fire from a hob is? It may be true that fires are more likely to start in a kitchen than any other room, but that's not the same as saying that most fires start on the hob - I suspect the tumble dryer and fridge/freezer have their quota of fires to answer for too. In the old days the classic way of starting a hob fire was an unattended chip pan - but the advent of oven chips and dedicated frying appliances seem to have made the traditional chip pan pretty much extinct. Saucepans full of water based contents are going to be difficult to ignite, so what's left? the frying pan or wok?  Usually not a lot of "fuel" in them - while they could produce a lot of smoke, I'm having difficulty imagining it causing a fire beyond the pan/hob sufficiently often to justify the costs of this kind of thing.

   - Andy.

I wonder what the likely cause of fire from a hob is? It may be true that fires are more likely to start in a kitchen than any other room, but that's not the same as saying that most fires start on the hob - I suspect the tumble dryer and fridge/freezer have their quota of fires to answer for too. In the old days the classic way of starting a hob fire was an unattended chip pan - but the advent of oven chips and dedicated frying appliances seem to have made the traditional chip pan pretty much extinct. Saucepans full of water based contents are going to be difficult to ignite, so what's left? the frying pan or wok?  Usually not a lot of "fuel" in them - while they could produce a lot of smoke, I'm having difficulty imagining it causing a fire beyond the pan/hob sufficiently often to justify the costs of this kind of thing.

   - Andy.

I remember being in a student house once years ago where the hob was turned on to warm up the house as the electric had gone off due to non payment.  It was a cold day and the hob was on for hours while one of the housemates went to add credit on a card for the meter via the local public house. 

I remember being in a student house once years ago where the hob was turned on to warm up the house as the electric had gone off due to non payment.

A common trick with gas hobs (ovens too) - although a potentially dangerous one (have a think why all other gas appliances need a flue to the outside, but gas hobs/ovens don't....). An induction hob though would be much more challenging to employ in that way though - as they don't heat the air... (not to mention no use when the electric is off either).

   - Andy.