Kitchen on Fire

We were invited to have dinner at the home of a new friend from the Y on Saturday night. It was a busy day (as usual) with David in class all day and the boys and I going to the Y and doing some errands out and projects at home. David got out of class late, and stopped to pick-up a pre-made dessert since I didn't have time to make one (Martha Stewart would be so disappointed with me - super woman I am not!)...anyways, he got home ~5pm and we were expected at 6pm and Ethan was still napping.

I had just made Mac-n-cheese and had gone to my office to print directions - David was in the playroom with Ryan and he called to me to ask if something was burning because he saw some light smoke - I had already packed the mac-n-cheese away to go with us, so I knew it wasn't burning....so no urgency. We both conitnue one and a few minutes later, I go to the kitchen and there is 'SOMETHING' on fire on our island cooktop....looked like a pile of newspapers. So now, I am confused, "what is that", I am thinking. My brain files back over the last 30 minutes trying to remember what I could have put there, and just as I decide to actually DO SOMETHING about the fire versus trying to figure it out, it suddenly occurs to me what the burning pile is - it is the store-bought desserts that David had brought home and placed on the cooktop. In his defense, we always use the island cooktop as a staging area (although maybe we shouldn't), and I had not completely turned the gas off - just to its lowest setting. So, I run to the laundry room, grab our extinguisher that I had recently mounted on the wall, pulled the pin, and shot the fire out pretty easily....other than the mess that took us a good hour to clean up and the lost dessert, all is well. In the end, I still believe that things happen for a reason - and this little fire that happened while we were home to deal with it could have been much worse if we had left for the evening with the cooktop still on - who knows!

Good to know that you have the equipment you need when you need it most - and not just have it - but know where it is, have it easily accesssible to the areas you are likely to need it, and know how to use it. (Up until I mounted it on the wall in the laundry room which is just beside our kitchen, it was actually in the cabinet under the cooktop which would not be safe to dig out from under the pans with a fire raging above!)...so, learn from our experience...if you don't have an extinguisher (At least one on every level of your house), then get one today - at HomeDepot, Lowes, etc. If you do have, be sure you know where it is and how to use it and that is isn't expired!

Oh, and our dinner with the Latham family was GREAT! Good food, great company (they have two sons as well, Jared 7 and Riley 4). All is well that ends well!