Friday, January 8, 2016

That Time Our Base Housing House Almost Caught On Fire







All the fire alarms went off. The cats were darting around the house in a panic. Tommy came down the stairs wanting to know what was going on. "Are you cooking?" he asked, hands over his ears. This is because the fire alarms have gone off when I was cooking before. Many, many times.

Then Security Forces came to the door.

"We saw smoke pouring out of your house."

But let me back up.

This is what happened: I went into the kitchen. I pre-heated the oven for the garlic bread. I walked away. I read a chapter of my book. Fine, two chapters. I went back in the kitchen and saw smoke wafting out of the oven.

"Huh," I said, because I didn't know what was happening. My caffeine had worn off at that point. I thought maybe it was the fry that fell to the bottom of the oven last week. I had been meaning to sweep away the charred remains. I opened the oven and...




That's not my photo because I was in a panic. The fire basically looked like that. I started to run around the kitchen like ET--arms raised up and everything.

"Fire!" I screamed. "Fire!"

I opened the cabinet and tugged out the fire extinguisher. At this point Tom had run in because when someone keeps shouting "fire," you check it out.

The house was filling with smoke. The fire alarms went off. All of them. It was what I imagine a club to sound like.

Tom turned on the fire extinguisher and got the fire out. But the house was still filled with smoke.

"Are you cooking?" Tommy boomed. He does not like loud noises. He went back upstairs to his room and slammed the door before I could respond.

Security Forces came to the door. "We saw smoke pouring out of your house."

This is because we opened all the doors and windows.

We were asked if we wanted them to call the fire department. No, we answered. We got the fire out. But thank you.

Then I had to call base housing to report what happened. Two guys came out to take photos of the oven. Probably to charge us $13290824308 if we don't clean it properly.

So what happened, you might be asking? What caused the oven to catch on fire?

Well. Natalie had put wax candles in it. They were in the shape of cookies. Apparently she was pretending to cook earlier. I mean, she has a PRETEND kitchen so why she felt the need to put crap in the REAL oven is beyond me.

This is all that remains of her cookie candles:




We reminded her that the oven was NOT to play with. Do NOT place things in it. Ever.

This is what the oven looked like:




It took forever to scrub the wax away. Tom took care of the rest.



The moral of this story is always check the inside of the oven BEFORE you pre-heat it.

(And yes, the irony did not escape me because on Monday I wrote that one reason why my kids weren't getting a hoverboard was because I was worried it was going to burn down the house. It turns out, one of my kids nearly did that anyway..)

32 comments:

  1. Hahahaha, I did that once, but with pizza. My mother-in-law left pizza in the oven and I didn't know, so I preheated the oven for muffins. Well, the cardboard caught on fire and it was not a pretty sight. Nor was my reaction, lol!

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  2. HAHAH GIRL! I am glad you're all ok. I hope the military doesn't send you a crazy bill for anything. Looks like you got it cleaned up really nicely :) Kids are jerks, aren't they?

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  3. Oh, geez!!!! I wouldn't think to check my oven first, either.

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  4. Omg. My mom would have kicked my butt.
    You did a good job cleaning your oven, tho. Want to clean mine? :)

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  5. We had to melt a few plastic items in the oven before we internalized the "always check before you preheat" rule. Glad it all got cleaned up!

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  6. The boyfriend... a grown adult.. put the cookie sheets we cooked wings on BACK in the oven instead of washing them, and didn't tell me. (who does that?!?) I found out the next evening when I preheated the oven for dinner and smelled them.
    Glad your house didn't burn down and everyone is ok.

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  7. Please tell me your oven cleaning tips!!!! So glad nothing worse happened and you all are ok!!!

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  8. Please tell me your oven cleaning tips!!!! So glad nothing worse happened and you all are ok!!!

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    Replies
    1. We just got Easy Off! We sprayed the crap out of the oven several times.

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  9. I'm glad there was a logical explanation for it (the candles) and it didn't just randomly do that-I'd be afraid to use my oven!

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    1. Me too! Yes, it was totally the candles that made it do that. It has never done it before.

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  10. I hate cleaning the oven with just food in it.. wax would SUCK!!!! Ever since I melted the plastic container in our oven, I always check inside... and I never decided to let bread dry out to make bread crumbs by letting it sit in a plastic container in the oven ever again. :-)

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  11. I've learned the hard way to always check the oven before I turn it on. My boys clean up the kitchen most nights, but they never check to see if something has been left in there (like an extra potato, etc). I've burned many things -but luckily nothing has ever caught on fire. Glad you got it out so quickly!

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  12. Oh, no! I've learned to check the oven first, too. You never know when someone is going to leave a pan of leftovers in the oven...

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  13. Oh dear!
    it reminds me of my aunt and uncle keeping perishable food in packaging in their oven. There's only two of them in a giant house with a giant pantry and somehow they ran out of room and stored food in the oven?? Moving on. I didn't know this and heated the oven to make something for my kids when we stayed there.
    Yeah.. not good.

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  14. Oh my gosh! I would have been running around the kitchen like that too! Glad everything (and everyone!) is okay :)

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  15. Oh my! Now that's a scary experience. And I love your moral - yea the kids will find some way to either burn the house down or cause a flood if we're not watching their every move.

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  16. All's well that ends well, right?? But jeez... that would have scared the crap outta me!

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  17. Scary!! I'm glad all turned out ok...! Luckily I don't have an oven! Ha

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  18. Oh, I'm sorry to be laughing now! I hate when our fire alarm goes off and it goes off ALL the time when I cook. Basically, any time the oven is at 400 or higher we have to throw all the windows open and turn on the vent fan on full blast. This makes life really fun, especially in winter in Michigan, you know?!

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  19. Wow! What a story. I am glad that you all are okay and I must say that spic and span oven clean looks great! LOL

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  20. Wow. Never a dull moment huh? I'm so glad everyone is okay. What a scare.

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  21. Wow..! I would of freaked for sure haha. I'm glad you are all okay. You must have been really scared.

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  22. Lesson learned the hard way. Next time, always check first if there is inside hahaha! But good thing nobody was harmed. - ANOSA

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  23. I've been through 2 house fires and they were NO fun. I frequently shove things in the oven before people come over to hide the mess since we have bad storage and my hubby never looks before he turns it on. Grrrrr.

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  24. That is scary! Fires are serious stuff. I am glad that you and your family didn't get hurt.

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  25. Oh my. How scary. Thank you for sharing. I need to go see what mine looks like!

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  26. Oh God .Thank heavens that all of you are safe and home is OK. Definitely need to check before preheating .How you make the most scary thing memorable for readers is inspiration indeed .

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  27. I would have been crying and scared. Definitely will double check.

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