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Siren & Safe

Fire Blankets

Where to Mount a Fire Blanket

There is one placement mistake that undoes the entire purchase, and it is the one that looks most natural: mounting the blanket above the hob.

By Ryder M.Last reviewed

Kitchen wall beside a range with a mounted pouch at worktop height

Mount a kitchen fire blanket on a wall to the side of the cooker, within one step, at roughly worktop height — between about 4 and 5 ft from the floor — and never directly above the hob. Above the cooker is exactly where the flames, the rising heat and the smoke will be, so reaching for it means putting your arm into the fire. Use a screw fixing rather than adhesive pads, because kitchen walls collect grease and steam and adhesive lets go quietly.

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Why not above the cooker

It is the most intuitive spot and it is the wrong one. A hob fire sends flame and hot gas straight up. Anything mounted above the cooker is in that column, which means the moment you need the blanket is the moment you cannot safely reach it.

It is also the position most likely to be blocked. Extractor hoods, shelves and cupboards live above cookers, and a pouch tucked under a hood is both in the heat path and awkward to open.

The same logic rules out the wall immediately behind the hob and any position that requires reaching across the cooker. The test is simple: stand where you would be standing, imagine flames a foot above the pan, and ask whether your arm would pass through them.

Where it should go

  • On a side wall, within one step of the cooking position. Close enough that you do not cross the room, far enough that you are not reaching over heat.
  • At roughly 4 to 5 ft from the floor. Worktop-to-eye height. Low enough to grab without stretching, high enough to be out of a small child's reach.
  • Toward the exit rather than away from it. If the fire wins you want to be moving in the right direction already.
  • Visible, not hidden. A blanket inside a cupboard adds a door to open. A blanket in a drawer under the tea towels is not a fire blanket, it is a tea towel.
  • With the gloves on the same hook. They are part of the tool. Storing them elsewhere means you will not use them.

Where it should not go

  • Above the hob or behind it. The heat path. This is the mistake this page exists for.
  • Under the sink. Damp, and usually full of cleaning products you have to move first.
  • In a drawer. Adds seconds and usually means unfolding rather than pulling.
  • In a high cupboard. If you need a stool, you do not have a fire blanket.
  • Right beside the extinguisher. Spread your tools out. Two tools in one spot means one fire can cut you off from both.

Fixing it so it is still there in two years

Adhesive hooks are what comes in the box and they are the weak point in a kitchen specifically. Cooking puts a fine film of aerosolized grease on every surface, including the wall, and adhesive pads release from greasy paint over months. The failure is silent: the pouch ends up behind a unit and nobody notices until they look for it.

Two small screws into a wall plug take five minutes and outlast the blanket. If you cannot drill — a rental, tiles you do not want to breach — clean the wall thoroughly with a degreaser and let it dry fully before applying the pads, then check the fixing every time you clean the kitchen.

Whichever fixing you use, mount the pouch so the pull tab hangs free and downward. A tab tucked behind the pouch costs you the one-handed opening you paid for.

Where the rest of the kitchen's fire kit goes

The blanket is one of three positions and they should not be in the same place.

The extinguisher goes near the kitchen exit, not by the cooker. You want it on the route out, so that reaching it moves you toward safety and so a fire at the hob cannot stand between you and it. What size extinguisher do I need covers what to put there.

The smoke alarm goes outside the exclusion radius. NFPA 72 (2025) §29.11.3.4 keeps alarms out of a 10 ft radial zone around a fixed cooking appliance, with further conditions between 10 and 20 ft, and out of 36 in from a supply register or a paddle-fan blade. Get this wrong and you will get nuisance alarms, then you will disable the alarm, which is the actual danger. Kitchen and bathroom placement has the details, and smoke alarm false alarms is the troubleshooting route in.

Once those three are right, the kitchen is done. The home fire safety checklist covers the rest of the house.

Questions people actually ask

Where should a fire blanket be mounted in a kitchen?
On a side wall within one step of where you cook, at roughly 4 to 5 ft from the floor, with the pull tab hanging free, and toward the exit rather than away from it. Never above or immediately behind the hob, because that is the path the flames and hot gas take.
How high should a fire blanket be mounted?
About 4 to 5 ft from the floor — between worktop and eye level. That is grabbable without stretching for most adults and out of reach for small children, who will otherwise unfold it.
Can I keep a fire blanket in a drawer?
You can, and it is much worse than mounting it. A drawer adds a step, usually means digging it out from under other things, and leaves you unfolding the blanket rather than pulling it from a pouch. If a drawer is genuinely your only option, put it in the drawer nearest the exit and nothing else in that drawer.
Will the adhesive hooks hold a fire blanket?
For a while. Kitchen walls collect a grease film that adhesive pads release from over months, and the failure is silent. Use two small screws if you can, and if you cannot, degrease the wall thoroughly before mounting and check the fixing whenever you clean.
Should the fire blanket and the extinguisher be kept together?
No. Put the blanket beside the cooking position and the extinguisher near the kitchen exit. Separating them means a fire in one part of the room cannot cut you off from both tools at once, and it puts each tool where its own use case starts.

How these picks were chosen. On published specifications, safety listings and manufacturer documentation — plus the findings of organizations that do run tests. We have no laboratory and we do not burn anything. Read the full methodology.

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