I mostly agree. Even electric ovens are usually vented (gas ones, of course, must be well vented - they’re supposed to sustain fire), so leaving the door closed doesn’t cut off the supply of oxygen. But it surely must provide less oxygen than opening the door will.
My electric oven/range has an exhaust vent under the right rear range burner. If I had a fire in the oven, I think I’d try to plug the vent with a wet dishtowel.
How serious is an oven fire, anyhow? My Mom’s old electric oven got hot enough (during self-clean) to soften Pyrex glassware, and it posed no fire hazard. Is a little grease fire going to get hotter than that?
I can tell you from experience that with the door closed the fire was getting plenty of oxygen from somewhere. Smoke was coming out the top (through the burners) so it was pretty obviously sucking air in from somewhere. Closing the door did not seem to smother it at all. I don’t know if this is true of all ovens but it is certainly true of mine.
Mine burned for quite some time. There was no damage to the oven other than the temperature sensor, and the outside of the oven wasn’t particularly hot or anything. I don’t think it was much of a fire hazard to the rest of the house, but it did fill the house up with smoke pretty good. I don’t think anyone has a real appreciation for how choking smoke can be until you’ve really been in a smoke filled room.
I’ve had a stovetop grease fires that was definately a fire hazard, but it was in a frying pan and simply tossing a large pot lid onto the pan put it out.
Here’s something few people know. If it’s electric, you can lift the top of the stove. It probably has a hinge to make cleaning under the burners easier. I don’t know if it’s there in a gas range since I don’t have any experience with gas. Anyway, you can look under the burners and see if there is a vent. You’ll definately have one if your oven is a self cleaning oven. If you have a fire and want to smother it inside, cover that hole with a lid or something.