I REPEATEDLY leave my hair flat iron on, coming home to the smell of burning plastic and my fear of burning the entire apartment complex down.

I haven't had any kitchen related mishaps....as of yet. I'm sure there's some in my future.

I definitely almost burned down the kitchen when I was making donuts unsupervised and the oil caught on fire.

Of course, I was only 9.

I came home from work one evening (around 6pm) to find that the gas burner was still on underneath one of the pans on the stove...from when my husband cooked the NIGHT BEFORE!!! It had been on for nearly 24 hours - thank goodness nothing happened (even the pan wasn't ruined). Needless to say, I now keep a close eye on the stove after he is done in the kitchen.

My ancient drop-in stove has no indicator lights on it. I've left it on over night at least half a dozen times. So scary! My husband is now in the habit of spastically checking it before bed.

Turned on the wrong burner - which my roommate had left one of those plastic microwave plate covers on. Came back a few minutes later to find it in flames. Needed to call the fire department (to my embarrassment, three trucks arrived) and spent the rest of the weekend in the kitchen with a magic eraser, which sure didn't feel like magic to me as I attempted to scrub the smoke stains off our walls.

My brother saved a neighbour's kitchen when we were kids.. the cupboards were engulfed in flames from unattended french fries left in a pan of hot oil.. my brother (he was probably about 8 or 9 at the time) ran in with a fire extinguisher and put it out!

I personally haven't had any of these mishaps, but my mom on the other hand.. well let's just say she's not allowed to cook grilled cheese, and she goes through at least one set of element covers a year!

I almost burned down the kitchen last night when I forgot to take the top rack out of the oven before I preheated it to make pizza. With the pizza in one hand, I tried to figure out where to put the rack, and stupidly ended up setting it on the mat underneath the cat's litter box. (Yes, I do now realize that I could have just put it on the very lowest rack shelf). When I picked it back up again, it was covered in melted plastic and dangerously close to scalding the wood floors.

When we were about 12 and left alone during dinner time for one of the first times my best friend and I set her oven on fire because we tried to bake the frozen pizza on the cardboard disk. Luckily her uncle was the fire chief and saved us with minor embarrassment.

I was playing with a creme brulee tourch. I wanted to see if I could make carmel. So I put down some aluminum foil on top of a metal pan, on the stove and had at it. The sugar combusted and made a nice flame. My girlfriend saw the flames in the mirror from the other room.

Lets just say that I am not allowed to use the creme brûlée torch anymore.

Also, I have put soapy water in a pan and turned on the heat to dislodge some bruned on stuff. I then forgot about it until it all boiled away and filled the apartment with soapy smoke. That was a mess. You thought burned on food was hard to get off.

@jen @ the baked life PLEASE buy one that has auto shut off or make the effort to be more careful. I have people close to me that have experienced tragedy because their building burned down due to one of the tenants carelessness. It's NOT a joke. Apartment fires are really destructive and it makes me sad that some people make light about being so thoughtless. An Accidental kitchen fire is a completely different deal, though.

I almost burned down the kitchen two years ago when I put on a pot of eggs to boil, and then decided to meet my mom for an impromptu lunch date. However she lives 2 hours away so it took me an hour to get to lunch and we were a few minutes into our conversation before I suddenly realized what I had done.

I was terrified (we had just bought the house a few months ago!) and had to call my husband at work (just 5 minutes from home) to go check on things. Amazingly the house and kitchen (and cats) survived. The pan did not, but that was the least of my worries. Despite many attempts I still get a whiff of egg sometimes when I'm getting things out of the very top cabinets. Ugh!

I made microwave popcorn and, in an attempt to get all of the kernels popped, put it back in the microwave after it finished. It smoked and smoked and I had to put it on the porch to air out. The whole kitchen smelled like burnt popcorn and smoke.

Also, once my sister put tinfoil in the microwave when she was about 10.

KeepTheCheeze - No one is making light of any situation, in fact, being aware of other people's mishaps is a great way to learn how not to do something. Especially if you've never been confronted with the situation before.

Started a small fire last summer when I made hot pepper jelly. Made it in a too-small pot and when I added the sugar, the whole thing boiled up and over the sides almost immediately, causing a small fire on the burner. Luckily I had the lid to my big canning pot handy, so that saved the day. That was my only real fire, but I've had a few more close calls.

Needless to say, there is always a fire extinguisher handy in the kitchen now!

My boyfriend keeps turning on the wrong burner, and once set the top ramen package on the front burner when we was going to use the back one. We smelled it before it burst into flame, thankfully!

I also once put a little oil in a wok, turned it on to heat up, turned around to chop some veggies, then smelled the smoke and turned back around to see huge flames. Then I picked up the wok, thinking to pour it in the sink (?!? really?), splashed some flaming oil on the ground and my foot, realized I should put it down, and then covered it with a lid. Geesh. Aside from some smokiness, a small burn, some dark and oily spots on the floor, and a ruined wok, everything was fine! Thank goodness...

This wasn't in the kitchen but it was pretty similar. In my second year of college I was a teaching assistant in the chemistry lab and one of the girls in my lab mixed her chemicals in a plastic beaker then set it on an electric burner to boil and walked away to get her book (which said on the second page to never leave your stuff unattended on a hot plate!) You can guess what happened. Let's just say she ended up there all evening cleaning up the yucky yellow dust the fire extinguisher left all over the lab.

For electric appliances you plug into the wall, you can use this plug timer that Belkin makes, (search Amazon for Belkin timer). It's only $10, and you can set it to turn off whatever is plugged into it after 30 minutes, 3 hours, or 6 hours. I use it to keep my cell phone charger plugged in so it doesn't drain power. But it's great for curling irons, flat irons, small appliances, etc.

I'd just moved into a new apartment with a gas stove after years of electric ranges. I was canning and always have a small pot of water with lids simmering on one of the burners. It simmered so long that the (plastic) handle caught fire.

I use a lower flame now. And a different pot.

When I was little we got free bacon samples at a grocery store. We asked how they made it so well and she said "we resuse the old bacon grease".

A few weeks later, I wanted to make bacon. Remembering what she said, I decided vegetable oil was a suitable substitute for bacon grease. (Oil, grease, what's the difference to a 12 year old?) So I put vegetable oil in a pan, and let it heat up. Plopped the bacon into the hot oil and it caught fire immediately with 2 foot flames. Somehow, scared out of my mind, I found a lid and covered it. Disaster averted

I once left a potato in the oven and the oven on overnight, forgetting about it until that "OH SH!T!" moment the next morning. Luckily, the only harm that happened was to the potato.

Also, recently, on my new stove, I guess I accidentally turned the pilot light out... for days I kept smelling gas but couldn't figure out what the deal was. Really glad I'd left the windows open. ::face palm::

I wanted to make some hard-boiled eggs for the week's packed lunches, so I had about 4 or 5 eggs on, boiling. Somehow I got on the phone for a few minutes, and then realized it was time to head out for my weekly crafting session with some girlfriends, and completely forgot about the eggs. Got back over 2 hours later to find the remaining bits of eggs burning to the bottom of the pot, all the water long gone. My kitchen is not in view of my front door, so the burning smell that confronted me on coming in scared the crap out of me! There were bits of exploded egg & shell all over my kitchen - honestly I think there must be some still missing, because the remnants I found only amounted to about 3 eggs! Amazingly, the pot is fine and still usable. Worst part was having to tell my fiance what I had done when he got home. Eeek!

I've more than once forgotten about hardboiled eggs and pots of rice - anything I'm not using immediately. Usually I'll remember before it becomes a hazard, but on one memorable occasion I woke up at 3 am to a smoke-filled apartment and a pot of incinerated quinoa. I'd started it after dinner with the intention of portioning it into individual servings for lunch, then merrily left the kitchen and forgot all about it.

I'm with elise890... forgot about a pot of eggs I put on to boil. I was still at home, but downstairs cleaning instead of upstairs keeping an eye on the pan to cook them properly. My hubby went up later (I don't even know how long it was) and calmly called down, "honey, can you come here a minute?" I entered the kitchen to see that the eggs had exploded all over the place- we're still finding fragments over a month later.

It should be noted that he's a firefighter. Thankfully, I only got off with the disappointed talking-to and not a complete meltdown over how embarrassing it would be to have the fire department show up at our house because I'm a dope!

Poptarts + old toaster + toaster deciding not to "pop" anymore = fire

as was my routine before school, throw the tarts in, press the lever, watch tv until it pops... except, it didn't pop... then smelled smoke due to them being ON FIRE in the toaster.

promptly un plugged it and doused with water

When I was a kid my brother almost set our kitchen on fire because he was playing with matches. Apparently he lit a match and threw it into the garbage can thinking it would go out on the way down. My whole family was awakened by the sound of the smoke alarm. You would think that he would have learned his lesson about playing with matches, but he actually set our backyard on fire after that. The neighbors had to jump the fence with a hose to put it out. I think he stopped playing with matches after that. lol

The first time I used the broiler was to toast the marshmallows on my rocky road brownies. They caught fire immediately, and flames jumped out of the oven when I opened it. I slammed it shut and screamed, and my husband came running to see what was wrong. Because I am dumb, I stupidly opened the oven AGAIN to show him and flames again hungrily licked the cabinets above. Luckily, I married a smart man and he told me to stop opening the oven! We pulled the destroyed brownies out of a cold oven two hours later.

At least twice, both times the toaster was the culprit. Once when I put a pop tart in and went outside to water my plants forgetting all about it. It caught on fire and scorched the cabinets, ruining toaster #1. Second time, I had knocked over a dish of birthday candles out of the cupboard and thought I had picked them all up... not realizing that some had fallen in the toaster. They caught on fire and ruined toaster #2. Now, I never leave the room when toasting ANYTHING. :)

Good God people! Make it your routine to UNPLUG your appliances after use!

Christmas. Kitchen towel got caught in the oven and caught fire. Husband, my mom, MIL all walk in just after I sprayed the kitchen with fire extinguisher.

First thing out of MIL's mouth, Is dinner ruined?

Classy.

I sat a potholder on my glass top stove when it was on. Then turned around just in time to see sparks floating up in the air. The potholder quickly went outside but not in time to prevent the fire alarm go go off.

I had a sheet pan of potatoes in the oven, decided to broil them to make them extra crisp, and forgot about them. Forgot until I saw black smoke pouring out of the back burner.

When I opened the oven, HUGE orange flames shot out at me...thank GOD I moved back fast enough, or else I might not have eyebrows anymore! I slammed the door, turned the oven off and kept the door closed...that extinguished the flames.

Good thing, too, because our fire extinguisher was still in the plastic packaging and in our freaked-out haste, we couldn't get it open!

Freshman year of college. Wanted to warm a cookie in our shady dorm-room microwave. I glanced at the microwave to see all of the chocolate chips had little fires blazing from them.

Our room smelled like s'mores for a week.

My mother nearly burnt down our apartment one night while making tea.

She was a bit scatter brained due to a new medicine she was put on that also gave her stoner-esc munchies attacks at 11pm or later. So one night I'm up with her, and she turns towards the kitchen saying "What's the crackling noise I hear?"

That crackling noise was the enamel from a ceramic teapot, with a faulty whistle, breaking off due to it GLOWING ORANGE FROM THE HEAT! My mother, in one of these aforementioned munchies fits decided to have some tea, but the kettle didn't remind when it was ready. Had I not been up talking to her she might have gone back to bed, leaving the thing on the stove heating up, and god only knows what would have happened in the end.

The kettle, in its glowing state, was taken off the flames after we discovered what had happened. The enamel that chipped off inside made it unusable. And to this day I have valid proof that my mother has failed at boiling water.

^_^

It was a cold and blustery winter day... snow had coated the streets and the cars and gardens. It was the perfect day to put on a pot of soup and walk the dog.
Well, it would have been, if it had not been so damn beautiful. The dog and I walked for miles and miles enjoying how beautiful our (normally dingy) industrial seaside town looked. When we could no longer feel our fingers and toes, we wandered back to the house. As soon as we opened the door to the apartment building, we knew something was amiss. We climbed the stairs, the stench growing more and more pungent. When I finally reached my door, it was intolerable.
Fumes of burnt Broccoli and cheese, crispy and melded into the calphalon coating. Horrific. If I had had any more tolerance for the cold, the house would have burned down. As it was I'm sure I increased my chance of lung cancer.
I certainly learned my lesson of not leaving anything unattended in the kitchen, lest you make all your clothes, bedding and furniture reek of burnt broccoli and cheese for the next month.

I've lost count of the poor dishtowels that have been left too close to the stove burners and caught fire. A quick stomping or running sink water has saved a few of them though!

Not me, but when I lived with my parents, my boyfriend was over for the night and I had stepped out for a minute to the neighbors house. While I was gone my mum yelled down to the main floor for someone to boil some water in the kettle. Since no one else was around my guy took the task.

Anyways, I came home moments later to all the doors and windows open(it was the middle of January, at night) and a funny smell, and don't ask me how I knew but first thing I said was "did someone put the electric kettle on the stove?" and my moms head popped around the corner and said "how the f*** did you know!?"

My boyfiend had never head of an electric kettle before.

2 weeks later while we were all sitting at the table eating lunch he asked if we had heard about electric frying pans too. My mum told him her parents still have the one they got as a wedding gift. Haha.

I recently left an empty pot on the stove, with the stove turned on HIGH. I had intended to start some rice for dinner, but at the last minute, decided that it was too early to start it. Then I got distracted by my kids, and went out in the backyard with them for about 15 minutes. I was horrified when I came back in and realized what I had done! Nothing caught on fire, thankfully, but the middle layer of the bottom of the pan was melting, and the inside of the pan was burnt black! About a week later, I plugged in the crock pot to make some baked potatoes, only to realize that all the potatoes were going bad. Then we left the house for a few hours. Came back and realized I had left the crock pot on low. Oh, and about a year ago, I turned on the crock pot, and did not realize that the cord was stuck between the metal part and the crock! Didn't start a fire, but melted a dent into the cord. I realize that I was lucky with all those mistakes, and now I am super-careful and do not turn on ANYTHING until I have the food already in it (and double check that the cord is not caught on the crock pot)!!

Fortunately, I've not had any such misadventures, but really, please, be attentive to stoves, toasters and ovens. My first memory is of a house fire that hit our house in the middle of the night, and while kitchen mishaps had nothing to do with the event, I'm extra careful when it comes to fire.

my mom has lit food on fire while it was in a toaster oven and she also melted a bit of the couch when she left a heating pad on it. Poor hubby once turned on an electric burner that had nothing on it (the pot was on a different one) and the handle of the pot was over it. Hubby then realized what he had done (10 minutes later) and then grabbed the handle that had become superheated and burned himself badly. :(

My grandma was in a friend's house and turned on the oven to preheat. Realized too late that it was the second oven where her friend stored all her tupperware...

I have a terrible sense of smell and was living in a very old house. Accidentally knocked a knob on the gas stove a bit, which allowed gas to escape. I had been studying in the kitchen for several house before I started feeling terrible and went to bed. My roommate came home and rushed me out of the house, smelling tons of gas as soon as she walked in the door. Near miss, but boy I learned a lesson.

When I was in elementary school, I remember coming home on the bus to see a neighborhood kid's house on fire. The fire department was fighting it, to prevent it from going to any other homes. The home was already engulfed.

I walked home and came in the door. And said "mom, the *******'s house is on fire!" My mom, in a panic, ran out the house with me to go check it out. Unfortunately, she had already started an afterschool snack of spaghettio's on the stove. By the time we made it back from the other neighbors house who was on fire, the pot had already burnt dry, and started to melt. Luckily, we didn't have a fire, but came close that day too.

Browser, our now-gone-to-the-big-catnip-patch-cat, earned her lifelong keep when quite a number of years ago she came and meowed at the bedroom door after we'd gone to bed...I'd left the oven on, with a pan of lasagne cooking.

A few months back, I put on a big pot of lentils. Hubs & I went for a walk, which turned into a jog when I realized that the stove was still on high, about an hour later. Ruined the nice pot my mother gave me. She had it for 30 years, I ruined it in 3 months.

Another time, hubs was preheating the oven. I smelled something yummy & strange. Opened it to find a six pack of beer in plastic bag melting on the top shelf. No idea.

If I have to step away from an uncontrolled heat source, I grab a spatula and do not let it go until I return to the kitchen.
"What are you doing with the spatula?"
"Oops"

bacon.

I can't recall anything too major that I would do but my mother who enjoys her cup of tea would often have a kettle of water boiling on the gas stove. Problem was, she hated the whistling sound it made so she would leave the top off. She would ultimately forget about it and the water would boil over extinguishing the fire. Far too often would I come home to (or wake up to) a house that reeked of gas.

In college I worked as a First Responder, we were repeatedly called out when drunk and/or high people made popcorn and put it in the microwave for 30 minutes instead of 3 minutes. Never any fire though, just a lot of smoke.

My husband and I almost burned down our kitchen twice in one week.

The first time was him, and he left a wood cutting board over the two left eyes of the stove...then turned on the right eye to heat up a skillet. I'm sure it was the right eye. No pro---oh my, 5 foot flames. Leaping. Dancing. We winged the aflame cutting board into the sink full of water and turned off the oven, at which point we had a mighty relieved laugh.

Then about 3 days later, we were home enjoying the fall weekend, and I put a dingy old teakettle onto the eye to make myself some tea. As I waited for it to boil I did some housework, and my husband asked if I wanted to help him schlep our garbage to the rural dump/compost pit/disposal area. I said sure! no problem! aaaaand left without any recollection of the gently steaming kettle. We came back about 25 minutes later to the rank, rank smell of molten plastic and sauter. The kettle was literally red hot, and the plastic handle had melted down to turn into a kettle stalactite.

Haven't done either since.

One day when my little brother was about 8 years old, he decided to make himself a bowl of ramen noodles in the microwave, but he forgot to add the water. After 3 minutes in there, they started to smoke and blacken. They didn't catch on fire, but I still remember the smell that invaded the kitchen; acrid & disgusting! Even with all the windows open and the fans on it hung around for days afterward.

I almost burned down the kitchen when I tried to broil a marshmallow on high. And forgot about it.
Note: Broiling marshmallows on low makes nice, toasty straight-from-the-campfire treats.
Broiling them on high makes a giant, black, smoky mess.

I had problems with the last two people living with me cooking from a different room, (they would crank up the burner(s) and go to do something else in another room.