Why does adding water to an oil fire make it exponentially worse?

Question

Why does adding water to an oil fire make it exponentially worse?

In: 2

Answer 1

In a cooking oil fire, the oil is hotter than the boiling point of water.

Water heated past boiling turns into steam with a massive amount of volume increase.

Water is heavier than oil so it will sink to the bottom of the oil.

In a cooking oil fire, like frying something on the stove, only the top of the oil is exposed to air and on fire. Not ideal, but could be worse, at least the fire isn’t spread everywhere.

Add water -> water sinks -> water turns to steam -> steam causes hot flaming oil to spray everywhere.