Sorry to bump this up, but I read amandaelizabeth's posts via links from the Misc Holiday Stories, and had to share these two...both caused/created by my mother.
Went to visit friends. Friends had recently remodeled their kitchen. Kitchen is now expensive, but Mom is helping with meal prep. Mom opens oven after learning Friend's mother put bread in there, but forgot to take it out 10 minutes ago. WOOOSH. Flaming bread bits are everywhere, and the cupboard and ceiling above the oven (both done in a pale, pale wood) are now very scorched, blackish brown.
Second time. We live in a hurricane path state. 2004, we have multiple storms come through in August/September. We lose power, but not to worry, we're prepared for this with a cooler for the perishables. Dad decides he wants hot dogs. Mind you, it's still raining/windy. But we've a covered porch, and a new little table top grill. I am told to start that puppy up, as I'm off to college in a year and need to know how to take care of this stuff for myself (my Dad was previously always the grill master). Mom sees me preparing everything, tells me I didn't use enough lighter fluid, squirts on about a third of the bottle, and lights the match. We're lucky it didn't explode, but Mom got a slightly different hairstyle and didn't have to tweeze her brows for a month from the ensuing blast of flames.
We now just do PB and Js.