This is perhaps the most important lesson I have learned in my whole life. It is most certainly more important than anything I have learned in law school, so listen up.
Earlier today I made some instant pasta for lunch. You know the kind, where you mix all the ingredients, heat and then just wait for it to thicken? (Uh, this is not the beginning of a post about my cooking prowess, obvi). Well, since instant pasta doesn't require any sort of special skill or talent, I tend to forget that it is on the burner and let it boil over, which is what happened today.
No big deal, right? Normally, true, no problem at all. I have developed an extremely effective method of cleaning the burner pans with fancy chemicals like vinegar and baking soda. So I sort of filed it away in my head, "need to clean off burner," and went on my merry way.
I went out this evening, and when I came back I decided I would like a cup of tea. I filled the teapot, put it on the stove, and turned to put the clean dishes away. It started to smell a bit, which I thought to be fairly normal considering the burned pasta sauce. Then I turned back to find my teapot completely engulfed in flames. Flames as in campfire. Fuck! Fuck! FUUUUUUUUCK! Fire in my apartment!!
I quickly engaged in some drastically horrible decision-making by reaching around and turning the burner off, and then throwing some water from the pitcher onto it. (Well, I suppose the decision-making could have been worse, I could have thrown the water at the burner before turning it off). At least it stopped the fire. On the other hand it did set off the smoke detectors (yay for safety!), and completely ruined my teapot. So, I need a new teapot, and I may need to invest in a fire extinguisher. There's one in the hall outside my apartment, but as I was looking at the flames it occurred to me that by the time it would take me to get to it, the fire could reach to the towels hanging on the oven door and then....eeeeeeegad.
Moral of the Story: when you spill on the burner pan, clean it off BEFORE using the burner again. Cripes.
5 years ago
2 comments:
Ack! Is the burner ruined as well?
I definitely had to buy a new burner pan, but the stove itself is still chugging along. I now also have a new box of baking soda by the sink for future electrical/grease fire emergencies!
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