Unplug the Toaster!

Sunday evening I was upstairs installing new trim in the bathroom when I heard my wife call. Since it was close to dinnertime I assumed dinner was ready. I did not answer her right away since her hearing sucks and she would not have heard me anyway. Plus I wanted to finish the one piece I was working on. About a minute later my son called out, "Dad? Mom wants you."  So I figured this had nothing to do with dinner. I called down the stairs to see what she wanted. She yelled something about seeing smoke and not knowing where it came from. This is never good since twice in the past she almost burned down the house. So I went downstairs to see what she was talking about. Since she had just turned on the oven I figured perhaps something inside spilled. I was expecting a small amount of smoke. When I walked into the kitchen I saw smoke drifting across the counter and out the open window. There was also a lot of smoke in the air. I quickly realized this was not simply something in the oven.

I looked at the trail of smoke and followed it around and noticed it coming from the toaster in the corner. A toaster that she had decided to pile things on top of. A Styrofoam egg carton, a bag of pretzels, and something in a shopping bag that I could not identify. I immediately yanked the plug out of the wall. That is always the first step in an electrical fire. Cut the power to it. That is when the toaster and the stuff on it burst into flames. Flames were licking at the wall and the cabinets above. There was a towel on the counter so I grabbed  that and saturated it in the sink and tossed it on top of the flames to smother the fire. It cut the flames down enough for me to grab the toaster. I yelled to "Open the front door and get out of my way!" I then carried the toaster out onto the lawn. No sooner had I put it down and the towel started flaming. I was able to put out the fire with the garden hose. While the wall and cabinet now has scorch marks, they never actually caught fire. Thank God!

Now if you are like me, you are assuming someone made toast and she put the stuff on top of a hot toaster. That was not the case. What had happened was she had pushed some things aside on the counter and up against the toaster. This pushed down the lever on it just enough to make it heat up. As a result it ignited the stuff on top. I am just thankful that I was home when it happened. She was panicking and freaking out and didn't know what to do. If I was not home I would be living in a trailer right now while trying to salvage what I could from the ashes of my home!

So let this be your lesson of the day: Never ever put things on or near the toaster. And always unplug the thing when it is not in use!!