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Tonight my oven caught on fire. It was stupid really, the way that it happened. I was making the kids hamburgers in the oven because we were out of propane for our outdoor grill. And for some unknown reason I put the burgers on a flat cookie sheet. As the hamburgers cooked the grease ran off the pan into the heating element and started a fire.
Black smoke billowed out of the oven. I turned the oven off, but other than that was unsure what to do. I didn't want to open the door and feed the fire with the oxygen (see all those tv shows have paid off) We stood there and looked at it. Ultimately we used the fire extinguisher. And by "we" I mean my 11 yr old son who ran and grabbed the fire extinguisher and put the fire out, while yelling, "Take my picture!" Ah yes, the son of a blogger.
Most fires in a home start in the kitchen. Seems logical I suppose when you think about it. All that fire and cooking and flammable things in that one room.
According to the National Fire Protection Agency :
Cooking is the leading cause of home structure fires and home fire injuries AND,
Kitchens are the leading area of origin for home structure fires (34%) and civilian home fire injuries (33%).
So what can you do, aside from not cook any more, which would actually be my first choice line of defense. Unfortunately I have this family that wants to eat like every day, multiple times a day in fact. The Red Cross has steps on their website to help you make your home safer.
Erin writes:
I ran into the kitchen to see flames completely engulfing the cooking sheet and licking the microwave above the oven. I quickly assessed the situation, while finishing the bite in my mouth. I grabbed another pot holder and managed to grab the cookie sheet and dump it in the sink. My two new Pampered Chef silicone pot holders/ trivets were on fire on top of two burners on HI. Apparently, as I took the pizza out of the oven, I had bumped into the knobs on the oven and turned two burners on HI. Next, I did the only thing I could think of. I screamed.
And yes, screaming is what I did too. Screaming swear words that is.
Like a true man, he took my elegant, white, waffle-weave dish towel from Crate & Barrel, and starts wacking away at the fire. We then had five pieces of burning silicone pot holders on the linoleum flour. He proceeded to wack at and stomp on the pieces, until nothing was left but ash. When our eyes reconnected, I could see what he so desperately wanted to say out loud: “You have got to be kidding.”
Mount Vesuvius had evidently erupted in our kitchen. There was a fine layer of ash on every appliance, in every drawer, in every crack.
In the case of my kitchen we had ash everywhere and the stuff from the fire extinguisher that coated every surface with white slime. I still haven't finished cleaning it up. I told my husband I was too traumatized. But really I am just lazy.
A video on youtube shows you how to properly deal with a kitchen fire. Watch it, preferably with your children. So that if your house catches on fire your child can put it out while you take photos.
When she isn't blogging at notes from the trenches, Chris is trying to save her historic home from a century of neglect and bad taste. And trying not to burn it down.
