Fire in the Kitchen!

Stories from the Fire!

Shelly: Remember the day with the fire?

Me: Yesterday?

Shelly: Yea, yesterday. When there was a fire in our house. We had to go outside and Aunt JB came to help put it out, and there was lots of smoke. You guys put up fans to help clean the smoke.

Jason: I hate fires. I don’t like fires in our house

Shelly – a bit later: At night can I please say a prayer to make it so we don’t have a fire again? Because sometimes I’m scared of fires.

This is a super long post. There are lots of pictures at the end if you want to jump there. Shelly pretty much summed up the whole story, but for those who want to wade through the long version – here ya go.

My version:

We had a fire in out house yesterday. I had just finished washing dishes and was putting some beans on to heat up and then went into the bedroom to call Mark to see how long it would be until he got home. I don’t really remember even turning on the burner, but apparently I did – and it was the wrong one. I had turned on the burner with all of my freshly washed dishes sitting on top. Mark had been busy and was going to call me back in a second, so I waited in the bedroom for him to call – it’s quieter in there when on the phone without kids as a distraction. Emily had come in and told me the kitchen was ‘ho’ (hot) two or three times, but there was rice in the rice cooker and steam was coming out of that; and she had been telling me for days that the stove was hot, even when it hadn’t been on for hours – so I didn’t really think too much of it.

Mark called back and just as I was answering the phone, Shelly came in and said …something… I don’t remember what, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t give her a chance to finish. When the door opened wider for her to talk to me I smelled smoke, and the first thought I had was ‘what are you kids doing??’ Then it occurred to me that they have almost no ability to make smoke… and then I freaked out. Still on the phone, I ran into the kitchen and saw 2 foot flames coming off the stove and screamed. I hollered something about the kitchen being on fire, ‘help,’ ‘get home now,’ and it was ‘really really bad,’ and ‘I gotta go,’ and then I hung up on him. I had taken the only un-burnt thing, my Bosch bowl, off the stove and was frantically trying to figure out how to deal with the fire when I heard the kids screaming in the living room. I realized that me freaking out was making them freak out – so I had to take a step back from fixing the fire to calm them down.

The fire was fairly self-contained on the stove and it wasn’t spreading yet – everything that was on the stove was already a complete loss and there was no point in letting them be traumatized to fix it a few seconds quicker. (In retrospect the aprons hang quite close to the stove, there is a jar of grease that we keep on top the stove, and it’s a really low ceiling in the kitchen – it could have gotten real ugly real quick, but luckily I didn’t have to deal with that). So, I hollered at the kids as calmly as I could ‘guys, it’s ok, it’s ok’. And although I’m pretty sure they didn’t believe me, they at least stopped screaming, I think.

My first thought in fixing the fire was find a blanket (can we say ‘bad idea’) and then to turn off the stove – but the controls were blocked by flame and there was no way to turn it off without sticking my arm into the worst of the flame and getting quite singed or probably much worse. I needed something long that I could use, and somehow remembered that we have rather long medal tongs. I grabbed those (out of the drawer closest to the fire – it went against most of my instincts to stick my whole body so near a fire that big. The dishwasher was hooked up and running and near enough to the stove that the only way into that drawer was to almost squeeze through the stove and dishwasher.) Even with the tongs, the fire was too big and to spread out to allow me safe access to the controls, so I had to take some of the fuel off the fire. Using the tongs I moved everything that wasn’t melted into place and was able to turn the unit off. The flames had calmed down enough by then that I knew I could leave it for a bit, and decided to put more effort into calming down the kids.

The smoke was getting pretty bad, so I went into the living room to open the front door and close bedroom doors and saw that the kids needed to get out of the house, both physically and mentally. I knew Mark was on his way home, so I figured I could let the rest of the fire burn itself down/out until he could get there and help and I would take the kids on a walk outside to calm them down and get them out of the smoke. Not my most intelligent moment, I know – but it was a matter of priorities – I also confess to being slightly swayed by the story of a day care fire back east in the news the last couple of weeks that had started from a stove unit being left on and ended up killing 4 kids and injuring 3. I just wanted the kids safe. So, I rushed them through the kitchen and to the back door to get shoes on, and realized that I couldn’t just leave the fire the way it was. I tried to usher the kids outside, but only Shelly would go.

I went back to check out the fire, but the other two just stood at the back door crying/screaming. They were near an open door and that was good enough for the moment. I did what I could to make sure the fire was settled and then went to help the two younger kids get outside. Just then JB shows up. It was the best news I’d had it what seemed like forever! I’m sure it was only a few minutes, but those sure minutes sure seemed like a long time. All I could do when I saw her was laugh. The fire was mostly settled – still going and getting smokier by the second, but not at risk of spreading – and the kids were getting there and just needed a little TLC. JB came inside and saw the fire and the first thing out of her mouth was ‘where’s your baking soda?’ I was shocked to hear such a good idea, and part of me was thinking ‘why waste the baking soda when then fire’s almost out?’ (I’m telling you, my brain had stopped working by that point). I decided to cover it with the already lost cookie sheet that had been on the stove, but since I couldn’t completely cover it (there was a burner in the way), all that did was make it a less complete burn and create a darker, grosser smoke. JB helped with the kids, and I went into the basement to get the fans to clear out the smoke. Most of the windows in our house either don’t open at all, or take someone stronger than me to get open, so I had the front door and the back door to work with. I had remembered to shut the front bedroom doors, but had gotten distracted on my way to shut the back bedroom and bathroom doors with kids and fire, so they were still open. I had JB close those doors while I was downstairs, but it was pretty much too late to do much good.

After getting the fans set up in the kitchen and living room (trying to find outlets in the house was rather fun), and trying to open the kitchen window, I decided that the smoke was way too bad. It was below neck level in the kitchen and getting blacker by the minute. It was time to break out the baking soda. Yea, I know – I should have done that in the first 5-10 seconds, not 5-10 minutes later, but I’ve already admitted that I wasn’t thinking straight. Baking soda works wonders, by the way. I was expecting to need to use most of the box to put out the plastic handle that was still smoking, but barely more than a tablespoon later – and it barely touched the fire, and it was out. That was a rather embarrassing moment, but I was just glad the fire thing was over finally.

I went outside to breathe normal air and to try to help the kids feel better. Shelly was off doing her thing – playing with Ethan, Emily was in JB’s arms, but Jason was having a hard time. I decided to go get my phone to call Mark. It finally occurred to me that the only reason JB would know to come over was because Mark had called her. So I called him and told him we were ok, and the house was ok, not everything in the house was ok – but the house and people were ok. He drove up while we were talking and Jason ran over to his car. He tried to calm down Jason for a bit and then took one look and me and didn’t even try to hide his surprise. Apparently I was a mess. I knew my arms were soot covered, but his look informed me more of me was dirty. My face was covered, my neck and shirt and even my teeth (according to him, that was the one part of me I could sorta clean before I made it to a mirror).

Mark went inside to look around and see what had happened, and I took my time following him. He opened the bathroom door and decided it was the worst room in the house – the other rooms had had a chance to air out a bit, but without any ventilation the bathroom (and back bedroom) had been smoke filled with closed doors. He turned on the ceiling fans in the living room (I have only a non-functioning brain to excuse why I didn’t think of that) and we moved fans into the bathroom and back bedroom (our back bedroom serves as a closet for me, a pantry, and some general storage for the house).

JB was thoughtful enough to take our kids back to her house and offered to let us all sleep there so we weren’t sleeping in smoke – plastic smoke no less. They informed me that plastic smoke was poisonous. I vaguely remembered hearing that at some point earlier in my life, but with my oh-so-functioning brain, it took a time or two hearing it for it to register that sleeping in the house would not be helpful to anyone. I knew the kids would be better off in a different situation, but for some reason that was all I could think.

So, JB took off with the kids and Mark and I stayed for damage control and to make sure there was nothing else that we could do.

I washed up as well as I could and changed into a clean shirt (which smelled like smoke because it was in my closet, aka the back bedroom, but it was better than the one I had been wearing). Mark picked it out for me while I was washing my face and he came into the bathroom saying ‘in honor of your goof today I picked this shirt.’ He held up a Goofy shirt. I had to laugh. He was so good about the whole thing. Never once even hinted that it was my fault (it obviously was, but he never even alluded to it, other than the joke about the shirt).

We lost some pretty good stuff on the stove. The most tragic was the lid to the Bosch (I’m glad I managed to save the bowl! Being grateful for the small things at this point), but there was also a ½ size cookie sheet, a pastry brush (wood – which probably started the flames), an icky spatula that we didn’t like anyway, a cutting board that I used all the time, a small cookie scraper (there’s an official word for those, but I don’t know it at the moment), a pickle jar (important – I know), some plastic measuring cups & spoons, a medal cooking spatula that I liked (that was the one who’s plastic handle was burning the longest and finally got baking soda-ed). I’m sure there was more, but since I’m at the in-laws typing this, and not at home I can’t check the melted mess on the stove to see if I can identify anything else.

After I did some initial clean up; and some picture taking – I am my mother’s daughter after all – we ran to get some food for us (ignoring the meal I had been making and was rather the cause of the whole mess in the first place) and headed over to the in-laws to be with the kids and help get them in bed.

After getting the kids settled, we went back to our house so I could shower and get into some actual clean clothes, and see if there was anything that we could do that night, and just make sure nothing else had gone wrong while we were gone. I looked at myself in the mirror, and realized that I had done a very poor job of getting my face clean! It was close, but it still looked like I had a strange grayish tan. It was good to shower and wash my hair, and use a scrub on my face/neck/chest/ears/etc to get more clean. I had no clothes that didn’t smell like smoke, so I didn’t get that relief, but I still felt much better.

The good news!

*We can now see every cobweb in the house, and we will make sure they are all gone. Although we’ve cleaned for cobwebs in the last month, and there are tons in the house were we’ve already cleaned, so we think we have a few arachnid friends making homes. It’s getting about to that time of year. We'll spray when this is all cleaned up.

*Spring-cleaning comes early and more thoroughly than we had planned! We get to wash all the walls and surfaces, even scrub a fair number of them, and wash pretty much everything in the house that wasn’t in a drawer or cupboard. We’ve also been needing to vacuum for awhile – now we have motivation!

*The house didn’t burn down. That is a rather good thing.

*We got to eat out! Even though I had dinner planned and cooking – and basically done – we decided it was worth not dealing with figuring out how to eat it. We made a run to Wendy’s and Arctic Circle. The food got put away for another day.

*I’ve learned better ways to deal with a fire, and now having had a first hand experience using baking soda to put out fires, it won’t take me so long to remember that the next time (lets hope there’s isn’t a next time)

*We discovered last night, after then kids were in bed when we went back for clothes and a shower and to make sure all was still well, that wet wipes work well to get soot off of surfaces, and we have a huge Costco sized box that we might need most of to clean everything.

The bad news…

*I almost burned down the house, and my brain did not want to work to figure out smart ways to deal with a fire.

*The kids will probably be afraid of fires for a while. I’m going to need to put some effort into letting them see a controlled flame sometime soon so the fear doesn’t have too much time to set in.

*I’ll probably be afraid of fires for a while! Logically I’ll get over it soon without intervention, but it wouldn’t do me any harm to have a few good experiences with the stuff…

*It might take me some time to want to cook again. Hopefully it only lasts until the house is cleaner and I have a useable stove again. The stove is so not useable at the moment. There’s melted plastic over the whole thing, and much of the controls are scorched. I’m not certain that the units all work – although I have no good reason to think they shouldn’t yet.

Update: It’s now the next day and with the help of my in-laws and Becca we were able to get a great start on cleaning! The stove cleaned up almost as good as new, the walls are clean – there’s a spot or two that would benefit from some paint, but most of that is from years of cooking and not necessarily the fire.

We brought the kids over so they could see that everything was ok before we started cleaning – thought it would be good for them to see what happened and know that they could talk about it if they wanted too. They went back across the road while we cleaned. When we brought the kids home again to go to bed (we’re so grateful that we can sleep here tonight!! We were worried that it would be sleeping in a fire ridden house for a long time.) Jason’s face when he saw the newly cleaned stove was priceless! ‘The fire is gone! There’s no more fire!’

We managed to get the kitchen mostly clean (I’m sure we’ll find some spots as we live and eat here again), Mom washed dishes while Dad did the walls, the bathroom got a good scrubbing from Becca, I got my clothes that needed to be washed out of back bedroom and the walls were wiped down by Mom and Dad. Mark got the cobwebs around the house and helped me change bedding and helped wash walls and ceilings.

All that's left to be done is figure out how to get rid of the smell, do TONS of laundry, wash the walls in the living room and bedrooms, clean the ceiling in the living room, and try to clean random surfaces as we go. Vacuuming might not be a bad idea either, but this list is depressing me, so I decided to stop.

Picture time!

Here's a shot of our stove just after the fire. The cookie sheet that looks so shiny is charred black on the underside. Those tongs on the right front of the stove were what saved me, and didn't get ruined at all.

Here's the ceiling.

See those cobwebs?! Gross!!

I had no idea those were there - I don't think they were a few weeks ago...

Soot got everywhere! Most of the house looks like this. Our beds, desks, bookshelves, etc - all of it.

The counter - can you see the soot?

More cobwebs we didn't know about.

Our lost stuff... That plastic glued to the cookie sheet is the lid to my Bosch... Or what's left of it. I don't think I'm going to be using that lid anytime soon.

The baking powder I should have used sooner...

I think this is what started the flames. Most of the rest of the stuff on the stove would have melted before bursting into flame, but this guy - he's all flame.

Poor broken pickle jar. One of the few things that I cared not at all about losing.

More soot.

This is me. I'm not sure you can tell how covered I was in soot.

This is a bit better... But I look weird.

Here's my arm - with super poor lighting.

Soot on the bathroom counter.

I tried to get a better shot of the mess my face was.

Again, I'm not the most photogenic shortly after trauma... At least that's what I tell myself to make me feel better about these photos!

Full picture shot - the day after when we brought the kids back to check out the damage.

The poor ceiling.

One last look at our burned stove and destroyed stuff

In the process of cleaning. I had no idea the wall was that bad...

Our 'new' stove. It cleaned up well.

What fire?

Look how clean it is!! There's a few grease spots, but compared to how it used to look!?!?

This is the cleaner that saved my Bosch bowl! There was a nasty scorch on the side that wasn't coming off, but a little bit of this magical stuff, and all that's left is a faint yellow spot. I need to get me some of this stuff!

This stuff is a great cleaner! It cleaned up much of the worst of the mess