My HOT Anniversary Date {a.k.a. What I Learned by Catching the Oven on Fire on Our Anniversary}

So yesterday was our anniversary. Nineteen years. I’m pretty sure we had to be about five years old when we got married for it to be our 19th anniversary. 😉

We expected a relaxing evening at home, just the two of us. In fact, I had salmon ready to broil, complete with yummy side dishes. We had a movie in the works. We weren’t looking for fancy, just some downtime together.

I made some homemade oven fries (yum!) and used parchment paper on the pan to make cleanup easier. Once those were done, I pulled them out of the oven and kicked on the broiler. I was talking on the phone and grabbed the parchment paper to line the salmon pan. (Duh!)

A few minutes into the broil (and still on the phone) I smelled something funky. I pulled the salmon pan out and realized what I’d done. Parchment paper + broiler = not so good. I swapped the charred parchment for foil and put it back in the oven. All was well.

Or not.

A few minutes passed, and I realized there was a flame in the oven. And it wasn’t the broiler flame. I opened the door slightly to peek in and saw that the oven was on fire. Cue panic music…. because that’s what I did. Fortunately Emma wasn’t home and Jason came running. I at least had the presence of mind to turn the oven off.

So after debating what to do (leave the door closed and let it burn out? use water? fire extinguisher?) we opted for water and shutting the door quickly. That did the trick. However, it’s not the best thing we could’ve done.

Here’s what I learned by catching our anniversary dinner on fire…..

If you have an oven fire, turn off the oven and DON’T OPEN THE DOOR.

Opening the door feeds oxygen to the fire, making it burn more. Keeping the door closed cuts off the oxygen supply and allows the fire to burn out. Fortunately ours was a small fire. If it had been larger, then we should have left and called the fire department. Always err on the side of caution.

Have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen.

It should be rated A, B, C to cover all types of fires. We realized (after the water) that we didn’t have an extinguisher. We both thought we did. We realized ours had expired and we’d never bought a replacement…. until last night. I spent the second half of my anniversary date shopping at Walmart and Lowe’s for a fire extinguisher. Romantic, right?

Stay in the kitchen if you’re broiling.

Fortunately I did this, so I saw the flames before they got too big. But there are times when I walk away for just a minute. This time, just a minute could’ve caused major problems.

If you get BLACK soot on your WHITE oven, call Mr. Clean.

See that nastiness? The black smoke left behind black soot. It was up the front of the oven and on the top part of the microwave. Fortunately it didn’t make it to the cabinets or ceiling. I wiped down the front of the stove with baby wipes and paper towels, but there was still a light gray residue. The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser took that right off. The only permanent casualty we had was a slightly yellowed underside of one dial. Definitely could’ve been worse.

My husband is awesome.

He took care of the problem and made sure I was okay. He didn’t even tease me about catching the oven on fire on our anniversary. (Though I did comment on our HOT date! 😉 )

Even when things don’t go the way you plan, you can still celebrate.

In case you were wondering, we did get to eat the salmon. The flames didn’t mess with it except for browning it a bit more than I would have. I reheated the oven fries in the toaster oven (while the big oven dried out… oops) and we were set. As much as I like to have my ducks in a row, I’ll admit that we won’t soon forget this year’s anniversary.