3
No More Fried Food For Us!!!
in
blogfriday,
damage,
danger,
emergency,
fire,
fire department,
flames,
fried foods,
Geek,
homeowners,
photos children,
smoke,
training
The other day, while I was talking to one of my children, I saw an orange light reflected on the door of the room that I was in. Being an experienced Mom, I had already started moving toward the light when I heard a voice call "MOOOOMMMM!!!" in that tone that tells you that Murphy has come to visit, and brought his younger brother, Trouble.
I dashed into the kitchen, and saw flames erupting from a pot on the stovetop, into the microwave/range hood directly over the stove. My eldest took one look, and while I got out the baking soda, ordered the children out of the house, then she got a metal bowl (both are used to combat grease fires) for the pot. My second in command (#2 child) herded everyone else outside to sit in the van (so that they'd be out of the way).
In the meantime, the flames were licking the underside of the kitchen cabinets, and the decision was made to call the Fire Department (this decision wasn't anything as calm as the way that I'm telling it now, lol!!)... while we fought the fire... the main danger that I was concerned about was that we would not be able to get the fire put out, and would lose our home (although, we'd get a new one... but who wants to go through living in a hotel room for months?!?). The children were already outside, so I wasn't concerned about any loss of life.
Between the two of us, we got the fire put out, but the microwave exhaust screen was still on fire while we were on the phone with 911, so the Fire Department came out, while we waited outside. (The microwave is part of our kitchen exhaust system; the concern was that the fire had gone into the exhaust system, and could smolder into a fire later on, if not checked out.)
The FD checked everything out, we *had* put the fire completely out, and with minimal damage. The most severe casualty was the microwave (right); the cabinets didn't get burned at all, thank heavens! And there's the smoke mark cleanup [shudder] on the walls and ceiling over and around the stove.
It was all over with in less than an hour, from first sighting of orange light, to the FD pulling out of the yard, to calling my homeowners insurance agent. Whew!
Of course, my child (#3), the amateur photographer, was upset because we didn't get a photo of the beautiful, shiny new fire truck that was parked in the yard ... sorry, Mom was a *little* bit distracted, lol!! She had to content herself with taking photos of the partially melted microwave. (Note to self: Designate child #3 to grab the camera in an emergency, lol!)
Needless to say, we ate take-out that night!! And, no more frying food (the oil caught on fire because the electric eye was up a wee bit too high... we're *still* trying to make the transition from gas to electric!) for us... if it can't be baked, we're ordering out :-)!!
Kudos to the children for moving like a well-oiled machine in the face of danger. Thanks to the fire department for arriving so swiftly to our call! Family emergency training works, and my family is (living) proof!!
I dashed into the kitchen, and saw flames erupting from a pot on the stovetop, into the microwave/range hood directly over the stove. My eldest took one look, and while I got out the baking soda, ordered the children out of the house, then she got a metal bowl (both are used to combat grease fires) for the pot. My second in command (#2 child) herded everyone else outside to sit in the van (so that they'd be out of the way).
In the meantime, the flames were licking the underside of the kitchen cabinets, and the decision was made to call the Fire Department (this decision wasn't anything as calm as the way that I'm telling it now, lol!!)... while we fought the fire... the main danger that I was concerned about was that we would not be able to get the fire put out, and would lose our home (although, we'd get a new one... but who wants to go through living in a hotel room for months?!?). The children were already outside, so I wasn't concerned about any loss of life.
Between the two of us, we got the fire put out, but the microwave exhaust screen was still on fire while we were on the phone with 911, so the Fire Department came out, while we waited outside. (The microwave is part of our kitchen exhaust system; the concern was that the fire had gone into the exhaust system, and could smolder into a fire later on, if not checked out.)
The FD checked everything out, we *had* put the fire completely out, and with minimal damage. The most severe casualty was the microwave (right); the cabinets didn't get burned at all, thank heavens! And there's the smoke mark cleanup [shudder] on the walls and ceiling over and around the stove.
It was all over with in less than an hour, from first sighting of orange light, to the FD pulling out of the yard, to calling my homeowners insurance agent. Whew!
Of course, my child (#3), the amateur photographer, was upset because we didn't get a photo of the beautiful, shiny new fire truck that was parked in the yard ... sorry, Mom was a *little* bit distracted, lol!! She had to content herself with taking photos of the partially melted microwave. (Note to self: Designate child #3 to grab the camera in an emergency, lol!)
Needless to say, we ate take-out that night!! And, no more frying food (the oil caught on fire because the electric eye was up a wee bit too high... we're *still* trying to make the transition from gas to electric!) for us... if it can't be baked, we're ordering out :-)!!
Kudos to the children for moving like a well-oiled machine in the face of danger. Thanks to the fire department for arriving so swiftly to our call! Family emergency training works, and my family is (living) proof!!
