I'm bloody shaking.
I was cooking an omelette on the hob and must have managed to splash grease onto the hob plate while attempting to turn the omelette over. Massive flames rose about a foot and a half in the air.
I was fucking petrified! Despite being a trained fire warden in more than one previous employment, I literally froze! Blessedly, the flame burned out as quick as it started, but good God, it frightened the life out of me.
I tried to turn off the hob (electric, so a bit pointless) but managed to turn on another ring instead. For about 5 or 10 seconds I was thinking WTF and am sorry to say that I genuinely didn't know what to do. I don't have a fire extinguisher or fire blanket but realised in those few seconds that I literally wouldn't have had time to do anything anyway!
Bloody hell. Time to regroup and have a little think for myself.
Thing is, there is no extractor fan or anything above the cooker. Just an encased something or another above the cooker - encased in wood presumably! We'd have gone up like newspaper if it hadn't burned itself out!!