Not Your Normal Night

On a normal night our family would be in the kitchen getting dinner ready together. J and P get things ready while A walks around plays with some toys, always underfoot. E usually sits in her bouncy seat and watches all the action. This was not your normal night.

P decided to enjoy the nice weather and had the girls outside in the backyard. A was drawing with sidewalk chalk and playing with her keys. E was safe in mommy’s arms. I (daddy) was in the kitchen getting dinner ready. I had set cut-up vegetables to steam and turned on the stove. After about 10 minutes, I wondered why the vegetables had not started steaming yet. I lifted the lid and noticed the vegetables were still nice and cold. OH NO! I never put any water in the pot! The pot had been heating on high with the burner glowing orange. My first thought was to lift the pot and put it in the sink. As I lifted the pot, the bottom of the pot fell off and onto the floor. There was a thump and then a splash of fire. The bottom of the pot had caught the linoleum on fire and the splash had been liquid metal going in all directions throughout the kitchen. I put the rest of the pot down in the sink. I opened the cabinet under the sink, grabbed the fire extinguisher, and sprayed the fire. P yelled out about another small area where the linoleum was on fire. The rest of the kitchen was fire free, but full of smoke and powder from the fire extinguisher.

We opened the windows, turned off the smoke detectors, and had dinner outside. Thank God no one else was in the kitchen. The hot metal could have easily burned us all. I was not hurt in any way. The only damage was to the floor and a couple of trim pieces on the cabinet.

The morals of this story are: 1) don’t forget to add water to the pot if you are trying to steam vegetables and 2) always keep a fire extinguisher in your kitchen.

Close up of the area where the pot fell

What the bottom of the pot looks like now

Close up of the part that fell off