Coconut oil shows up in the kitchen, in the bathroom, and in the craft closet as candle fuel, so people reasonably ask whether it is a fire risk in any of those places.
Coconut oil is combustible but not flammable. It is solid below about 76°F, does not give off flammable vapor at room temperature, and cannot ignite from a spark. Heated in a pan, refined coconut oil smokes at about 400 to 450°F (unrefined around 350°F) and will ignite around 600 to 700°F, the same range as other cooking oils. That is exactly why it works as a slow-burning candle wax substitute, and why an unattended pan of it is a fire.
In the Kitchen
Coconut oil behaves like every other cooking fat: fine at moderate heat, a fire waiting to happen if you walk away from a pan on high. Because it starts as a solid, people sometimes melt a big scoop in a pan and leave it to liquefy; that is where the trouble starts. Melt it on low. Once it is smoking hard, it is a few hundred degrees from igniting. Treat a coconut oil pan fire like any grease fire: burner off, lid on, no water, don't move the pan. Full instructions in is cooking oil flammable.
As Candle Fuel
Coconut wax candles and DIY coconut oil candles exist because the oil burns steadily once a wick delivers it to a flame. The oil itself is not the hazard; the open flame is. A jar of coconut oil with a wick in it is a candle, with all the same rules: never unattended, away from anything that burns, on a stable surface. See is candle wax flammable for how candles start fires.
On Skin and Hair
Coconut oil on skin or hair is not flammable. It will not catch fire from a candle or a lighter the way alcohol-based products will. The one caution is oily fabric: towels, sheets, and clothing soaked in coconut oil (or any oil) can spontaneously heat up in a dryer or a warm pile, the same mechanism as oily rags in a garage. Wash oily laundry in hot water with extra detergent, and don't leave it bunched up warm.
Storage
A jar of coconut oil in a cabinet is one of the safest things in your kitchen. Keep it away from the stove so it doesn't melt and spill, and keep it capped. That's it.
Related reading: is olive oil flammable and is petroleum jelly flammable.
