Wednesday, January 19, 2011

No Fire Without Smoke

I set fire to the kitchen at work tonight folks. I was busy putting a lasagna together when on the hob behind me, a pan of oil caught light. Quick as a flash I did the whole wet-tea-towel-wrung-out & smothered the flames. I waited a moment - all the time black smoke filled the room, setting off the alarms for the whole building, sending upwards of 50 confused foreign students outside into the cold via the fire escape. I took the cloth away from the pan and sheepishly carried the pan toward the sink. It proceeded to reignite. I dropped it on the floor and it burnt straight through the carpet. I repeated the wet towel process once more and finally extinguished the persistent flames.
Panic over, I continued to get ready for service, which remained on-time and with no further incidents.

After service I tried to clean the black smoke residue from the ceiling above the hob where the initial flames rose and licked the paint not an hour earlier. I managed to smear the paint and even peel it in places as I somewhat frantically tried to get it white again.

All through this, I listened, as I always do, to Marc Riley's BBC6 show on the radio.

The live band in session tonight?......'The Burns Unit'.

true story.

1 comment:

Kitchen Stools Direct said...

Oh no!! Glad to hear that you are safe with only some minor decorative damage as far as ceiling and carpet go. They can be replaced. You can't! But, yes, funny how things tend to run together as in your incident and the show. It was telling you to relax, be thankful, and have a little giggle.