As Pat put forth, the melting temperature of AL is much higher that the boiling temperature of water. Thus, as long as there is water in the pan, the temperature of the pan will not exceed the boiling point of the water. Therefore, the presence of the water in the pan is consistent with it being added to the pan after it had melted. This may be consistent with fire suppression activities.

You can test your hypothesis using some relatively simple plume correlations. You will need to know the thermal energy release rate of the electric coil, the diameter of the coil, along with the vertical height of interest. Since the AL pot on the coils will absorb thermal energy for some period of time, a "worst case" is the electric coil producing thermal energy with the pot.

The coils may have an thermal rating that is relatively small when compared to the heat release rate of hydrocarbon liquids with the same surface area. Although I have not done the calculation, I would think that the temperatures in the thermal plume a few feet in vertical height from the burner would not be close to the temperatures required for ignition of the wood cabinets.

The presence of "clean burns" at the front of the hood is consistent with direct flame impingement, which can provide a source of ignition for the wood cabinets about the hood. A flame height correlation is useful for testing such hypotheses.

Douglas J. Carpenter, MScFPE, CFEI, PE, FSFPE
Vice President & Principal Engineer
Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc.
8940 Old Annapolis Road, Suite L
Columbia, MD 21045
(410) 884-3266
(410) 884-3267 (fax)
www.csefire.com