Once again, I managed to catch a small appliance on fire and this time it was at home rather than at work. Earlier this year, I came into work and I had forgotten to bring breakfast so I bought a pop-tart, (yes I know they are bad for me) from the vending machine. I popped it into the toaster and walked back into our studio while it cooked. Well, I forgot about it. When Greg went into the kitchen he started calling my name in a concerned voice. I thought he was just trying to be silly so I didn't answer right away. When I finally walked out of the studio toward the kitchen, I could smell smoke. Greg was standing in the kitchen staring at the toaster. My poptarts caught fire in the toaster and they were still blazing. Greg unplugged the toaster and took it outside where we proceeded to pour a huge tumbler of water on it to extinguish the flames. You would think I would have learned my lesson right? Wrong…
The other night, I was preparing dinner, while standing by to help he kids when they had questions about their homework and catching up on my email, all at the same time. I usually multi-task in the afternoon while the kids are doing homework however, I don't usually cook dinner, my husband Don handles most of the family meals. He was not home yet, so I decided to make tacos, simple enough, right?
The meat was simmering in its seasoning on the stove. I had already chopped up the tomatoes, lettuces and onions, shredded the cheese, cooked the flour tortillas (we like to buy the uncooked tortillas and then cook them just before we eat them, they are so good!) My husband had come home while I was preparing everything and I felt like a hero. I had it all under control, dinner was cooking, the kids were almost finished with their homework and I had finished some of my work and managed to catch up on the news too.
Don sat down with the kids at the table while they finished their homework. I knew we would be eating in just a few minutes so, the final thing I wanted to do was warm some corn taco shells in the toaster oven because that's what Don usually does just before we eat. I separated the taco shells and placed them neatly on the rack, closed the door and pressed start on the toaster. I went into the computer room to shut down my computer and turn off the tv. I wasn’t out of the room more than a few minutes.
When I walked back into the kitchen everyone was still sitting at the table and I looked up to see a fire contained in the toaster oven. I tried to stay calm while saying to my husband, “The taco shells are on fire.” He said "That's okay, I like them crispy" and I said, "No, they are on fire, in flames." He was on his feet in no time, unplugging the toaster oven from the wall. He put on a pair of oven mits, grabbed the toaster oven and walked out into the garage. I opened the garage door and ran back in to get some flour to put out the flames. He put the fire out with the flour and then hosed off the mess on the driveway.
After the cleanup. We came back in, set the table, and sat down to eat tacos without warming up the shells. I couldn’t understand how they caught fire so quickly and my husband explained it says right on the package not to heat the taco shells for too long because the grease in them can catch fire. It turns out he always set them to warm not “toast,” when he warmed them up in the toaster oven. The next day, grandma pulled her old toaster out of storage and Don and I went to store picked up another fire extinguisher for the kitchen. We used to have one but, I used it put out the fire I started in the little microwave we had in our old house. (Another long story, don’t ask.) It seems I have a problem with multi-tasking while operating small appliances.