This is embarrassing for me, but hopefully the lesson I learned yesterday helps someone else avoid my fate.
As I mentioned over in SUWYC I made a double smoked ham with the Chris Lilly spicy apricot glaze on New Year's Day and we delivered plates of ham, greens and peas to family that did not come over.
Unfortunately, there was a little "event" that happened in the middle of all that. I had poured all the ham juice from the foil and the left over unused glaze into a small sauce pot and brought it inside. It had cooled down some, and a few minutes before walking out the door with a laundry basket of food to deliver, I had popped the ham, wrapped, in a 170F oven, then turned the oven off to hold. I had dumped the pots on the stove of peas and greens into two slow cookers to hold them warm for a while. And I turned on a burner to reheat that glaze for a minute, before intending to turn it back off. Instead, I grabbed the laundry basket off the counter with all the to-go plates, and walked out the door.
20-25 minutes later, standing in my son's driveway, I received an alert on my iPhone from both of the Nest wifi-connected smoke detectors in the house. I immediately knew what had happened.
I used an app on my phone to remotely open the garage door, and as I tore off in the car towards the house, my son called 911, and I just had pictures in my mind of rolling fire coming off the stove and the house burning down. There was a skillet of freaking bacon grease on the stove next to that 1.5 quart sauce pot too!
I drove up to a scene of firetrucks, and smoke pouring out of all the windows of the house. And that little stainless pot sitting in the driveway all by itself!
No damage, other than a pot full of charcoal. The chief told me that the lid had sucked down into the pot slightly, and he got there first and took it out to the driveway and had to force the lid off. No flames, as it was covered. JUST smoke.
Anyway, the firefighters were great. They used a high powered fan to push air in one door, while they went through the house opening doors and windows, and drove all the smoke out. I had to help open the ones with storm windows in the bedrooms, as the younger firefighters had never seen those. This is the scene as we wait on the smoke to finally dissipate, and Yvonne showed up about then with my son and snapped this pic.
The little dog was with Yvonne and me, and not in the smoke thankfully, and rode back with my son and Yvonne.
So now we have a house that despite leaving the windows open all day (it was 63F outside), has a slight burnt food aroma everywhere. Hopefully that will dissipate over time, and I'll steam clean the various throw rugs and carpets which should help. And Yvonne wants to do something for the guys at that fire station too while we are at it. She offered them food, but the chief said he didn't trust our cooking!
So again - PSA. TURN OFF THAT STOVE! I can honestly say this is the first time this has happened to me in 60 years, 40 of which I've been cooking, but it did happen.
A second PSA - consider finding yourself a wifi connected smoke alarm. Nest sadly no longer makes them, and mine expire in 2030, but surely someone else makes them.
Jim
As I mentioned over in SUWYC I made a double smoked ham with the Chris Lilly spicy apricot glaze on New Year's Day and we delivered plates of ham, greens and peas to family that did not come over.
Unfortunately, there was a little "event" that happened in the middle of all that. I had poured all the ham juice from the foil and the left over unused glaze into a small sauce pot and brought it inside. It had cooled down some, and a few minutes before walking out the door with a laundry basket of food to deliver, I had popped the ham, wrapped, in a 170F oven, then turned the oven off to hold. I had dumped the pots on the stove of peas and greens into two slow cookers to hold them warm for a while. And I turned on a burner to reheat that glaze for a minute, before intending to turn it back off. Instead, I grabbed the laundry basket off the counter with all the to-go plates, and walked out the door.
20-25 minutes later, standing in my son's driveway, I received an alert on my iPhone from both of the Nest wifi-connected smoke detectors in the house. I immediately knew what had happened.
I used an app on my phone to remotely open the garage door, and as I tore off in the car towards the house, my son called 911, and I just had pictures in my mind of rolling fire coming off the stove and the house burning down. There was a skillet of freaking bacon grease on the stove next to that 1.5 quart sauce pot too!
I drove up to a scene of firetrucks, and smoke pouring out of all the windows of the house. And that little stainless pot sitting in the driveway all by itself!
No damage, other than a pot full of charcoal. The chief told me that the lid had sucked down into the pot slightly, and he got there first and took it out to the driveway and had to force the lid off. No flames, as it was covered. JUST smoke.
Anyway, the firefighters were great. They used a high powered fan to push air in one door, while they went through the house opening doors and windows, and drove all the smoke out. I had to help open the ones with storm windows in the bedrooms, as the younger firefighters had never seen those. This is the scene as we wait on the smoke to finally dissipate, and Yvonne showed up about then with my son and snapped this pic.
The little dog was with Yvonne and me, and not in the smoke thankfully, and rode back with my son and Yvonne.
So now we have a house that despite leaving the windows open all day (it was 63F outside), has a slight burnt food aroma everywhere. Hopefully that will dissipate over time, and I'll steam clean the various throw rugs and carpets which should help. And Yvonne wants to do something for the guys at that fire station too while we are at it. She offered them food, but the chief said he didn't trust our cooking!
So again - PSA. TURN OFF THAT STOVE! I can honestly say this is the first time this has happened to me in 60 years, 40 of which I've been cooking, but it did happen.
A second PSA - consider finding yourself a wifi connected smoke alarm. Nest sadly no longer makes them, and mine expire in 2030, but surely someone else makes them.
Jim
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