-| 365° : burnin down the house |-
[accidents happen most often at home]
I came home from work one Saturday morning to find Tim, who had apparently come over to my house to cook breakfast for himself and my kid. She was watching TV and he had cinnamon rolls in the oven and bacon on the stove.
He had a plate with paper towel on the front burner to transfer the bacon to as it got done. I go to the coffee pot, hoping for coffee but it is off and empty. I have the Folger's Singles-the kind that work like tea bags... and asked him to turn the water kettle on for me since he was in front of the stove. I pay no attention to his next move which was turning on the burner. Tim then leaves the room.
I open the pantry door and get out the coffee singles and start to open them and put them in mugs; and suddenly there is a loud pop sound, as the plate that was on the front burner broke, because the tea kettle is on the back right burner, which is still off. The plate was on the front right burner, which now is in the process of burning the paper towel that is sitting on top of the burner, now that it has lost its plate surface. It took a few seconds for all of this to register in my brain; and I jump into action, picking up the flaming paper towel. Tim walks in and says, "What was that?"
I'm standing there with a burning paper towel in my hand. I realize this is still burning and... drop it and stomp it out. (Way to go-however the sink is not just arms length from my stove). This ruins the little rug on the floor, and Tim says something along the lines of, "Gee I leave you alone in the kitchen and you try to burn your house down.", then he starts to help me clean it up.
Now, stoneware gets very very hot before it actually breaks from direct heat; such as that from a burner. So after it cools some we move it to a garbage bag which still melted despite letting the shards of stoneware cool. After inspecting the rug and deeming it extinguished and now unsightly garbage, we wrap this up and throw all of it in the trash.
Since that morning, I seem to check three times every time I turn a burner on; even if I know I turned on the right one and nothing else is on the stove top. I hope in the future that I have a faster, smarter reaction should anything like this happen again.
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17 Feb 2002- perotheus.com
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