FIRE! Close calls

[magicdomino]

Many years ago, my mother was caring for her gentleman friend, who was dying of lung cancer, at our house.  A forgotten skillet on the stove started smoking.  Not wanting smoke around Gentleman Friend (He was staying in the living room), I started to move the skillet outside.  Perhaps there was extra oxygen in the air from Gentleman Friend's tank, but the skillet burst into flame.  I got a lid on it and set it outside, but it was startling to have a pan suddenly flame up in my face.

Then there was the time I scorched my hair in a candle flame, but that happens to everyone.  Doesn't it?   

[Jones]

I will spare the details, but when DH and I were newlyweds with a number of romantic gifted candles  I lost a pillow and some hair to flames during , um, a Scrabble game. DH beat it out quickly and stupidly, with his hand. Fortunately neither of us was actually in need of first aid, and I now know under what circumstances my DH will raise a hand at me.

[onyonryngs]

I managed to light a caprese sandwich on fire.  I didn't realize bread was so flammable. 

[Cat-Fu]

Last week I was microwaving some roasted beets with feta cheese at work and the beets caught on fire after 30 seconds. I still haven't figured out how! I'm glad I tend to watch the food I reheat—I put it out before it even got very smoky by putting the lid back on the container, and luckily no one at work noticed!! 

I keep a fire extinguisher at home, but it never occurred to me to bring one to work, too!

[robobecky]

I had 3, all when I worked at McDonalds years ago.  If your crew person leaves an english muffin in the toaster long enough, it will catch on fire.  Also, if your crew person drains the fry vat to clean the oil but forgets to turn off the vat first, you will have flames shooting out of your fry vat. I have to admit, as the MOD I panicked slightly and had the crew person use a fire extinguisher on the vat rather than just putting the cover over it which would have worked without all the mess   However, in my defense, I was not expecting to hear "Hey "My name'" and turn around to see flames shooting out of the fry vat.  And, this is the first one that happened, courtesy of me-if you throw your granola bar in the industrial strength microwave to thaw it while its still in its wrapper, it will catch on fire inside the microwave because there is aluminum inside the wrapper.  And no, that was not the first time I'd ever had those granola bars, so I really should have known better.

[Reika]

The most recent was this past Friday night. Mom's tv decided it was going to die in a blaze of glory. Thankfully it was a small blaze that went out when I unplugged the thing, but after a long week full of other stresses, having the tv go in such a way was not fun.

[MasterofSquirrels]

In one day I set 2 small fires in my kitchen. Thankfully a lifetime of having my mom set herself on fire has made me not prone to panic.

My mother has a bathrobe with large sleeves. Often she will reach over her gas range to "get something" and will set her sleeve aflame. Her cries of "OOOh! OOh! I am on fire again!" have moved us (sister and I) to action pretty quick. My mom has never once been hurt. Amazingly.

She lives alone now, she called and told me she no longer has the robe. Her reasoning was that there would be no one around to put her out.

[Girlie]

Anyone remember those fully aluminum wrappers from Wendy's? Once, as a kid, I pulled out a leftover burger, put it in the microwave (still in the wrapper, of course! My dad did that all the time with his burgers from McDonalds!), and managed to burn out the microwave by setting the interior on fire.
Thankfully, I was smart (and lucky) enough that I turned off the microwave and left the door closed. It burned itself out.
Microwave was ruined, but the house was saved.

[bansidhe]

I am almost phobic about my house catching fire and always unplug appliances and check  the stove and oven before I leave every day. One day, the electricity to the downstairs bedroom suddenly quit working. We checked the breakers but everything looked fine, so puzzled, we called an electrician. After much poking around he cut a rather large hole in one of our walls and eventually pulled out two ends of a wire that had, for whatever reason, caught fire inside the wall. Thank goodness it extinguished itself!

I am now really phobic about my house catching fire. 

[Belle]

Oh my goodness, yes. I recently learned these important lessons:

• Do not put bread that has nuts and fruit in it (e.g., fruitcake, panneforte) into a toaster.
• If something is smoking in your toaster, do not assume it is just part of the cooking process. Smoke typically precedes flames.
• The time to learn how to use a fire extinguisher is not when there are large flames shooting out of your toaster. That will result in lots of swearing and no extinguisher foam.
• Throwing a flaming toaster across your backyard and into the snow will successfully squash a fire. Your neighbors, however, may find it a bit odd.

On the plus side, I now know how to use the extinguisher!

[mmswm]

My father gave my mother a microwave for mother's day the year she was pregnant with me.  By the time I was 32, my mother really, really wanted a new one, but my father is a huge tightwad and wouldn't replace it because it still worked.  Well, let me rephrase the tightwad bit.  He'll spend money on quality items, but only if the extra money means quality, not a brand name.  Anyway, they were at a standoff.  My mother decided to end the standoff by putting the lid of a green bean can into the green beans as she warmed them up.  She did it on purpose, with the specific intent of blowing up the old microwave.  It worked in spectacular fashion.

Oddly, it's been 5 years or so and she hasn't been happy with a microwave since then.

[CLE_Girl]

2 stories of my own, and one from a co-worker:

1) defrosting a bagel in the sorority house microwave - I put the bagel in the microwave and set it for 1:00.  I left the kitchenette to get butter and jelly from the cook's fridge across the hall and got into a conversation.  Conversation stopped when we smelled and saw smoke coming from the kichenette...my finger must have slipped and press 0 an extra time, setting the microwave for 10:00.

2) Steaming green beans - I put a pot on the stove with ~1in of water, just enough to steam cook some frozen green beans.  Turned the burner on and went about prepping the rest of dinner.  DH comes down stairs and asks "what's that smell?" The water had boiled off and the pot was burning.

Co-workers story - make sure the candles are out before you go to bed.   My co-work set up a nice relaxing bath for her self, complete with aromatherapy candles.  After her bath, she went to bed only to be woken a few hours later by her dogs.  She forgot to blow out all the candles and they had burned all the way down.  Luckily they were on the edge of the bathtub and didn't do any damange but char the tub and wall. 

[Outdoor Girl]

I remember another one...

We have a toaster oven at work.  As is often the case with communal appliances, it had a fair amount of build up in the bottom.  I was making bruschetta one day so I had the thing on broil.  All of the stuff in the bottom caught fire.  I took my pan out, closed the door and stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what to do.  One of my quick thinking coworkers shoved me out of the way, unplugged it and threw it outside onto the pavement.

Everyone can thank me for us getting a new toaster oven.

[Sootikin]

I fell in love with fried dill pickles after having them at a friend's house and she claimed they were really easy to make.  I manage to start a small fire that smoked up my whole kitchen and scared the heck out of me. I'll get my fried pickles from a restaraunt from now on!

When I lived in an apartment years ago, I had a neighbor complain about me frying pickles. I guess she could smell them cooking  as my windows were open. She claimed it was a fire hazard. I never had a pickle fire though. ;-)

My close call came a few years ago when I accidentally placed a stack of paper plates on a hot burner. Luckily, the fire was quickly contained but it did scare the living daylights out of me.

What is it with fried pickles?!?!

http://www.etiquettehell.com/smf/index.php?topic=97893.msg2392931#msg2392931

[Katana_Geldar]

Leaving things on hot plates and turning on the wrong one... Once I did it with an egg. BOOM! My aunt has done it with plates.