A kitchen fire was started by a thawing turkey!

Thawing it on the counter? Sheesh. In a sink of cold water, in the fridge overnight, or even in the microwave. I never unplug my appliances and have never had a fire either. I did cube some bread and set it all on a cookie sheet at 200 degrees in the over to make the bread crumbs for home made bread pudding. I forgot all about it until my house filled with smoke. HAHAHA. No fire though. And more importnantly no bread pudding that night either. HAHAHA!! HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !~!~

I know this is not supposed to be funny..but it sounds like mousetrap to me. No, I am awful..I unplug nothing. I have 2 coffeemakers and a toaster that are never unplugged... neither is the blender. I guess you never know. My parent's neighbors had a problem with their self cleaning oven. Started it to clean after dinner one year on Christmas eve, came home from midnight mass to find the house in flames.

I usually keep my poultry in the fridge when defrosting it. I wouldn't want one of them to become over chilled and push the toaster into action to get warm.

How bizarre. What a great yarn to have for the telling. I'm not terribly safety conscous or health conscious at home. Which is not to say I'm a slob or unclean but i do have animals inside. It's a good thing i'm healthy with a strong constitution I guess

Gerty you really got my attention with this one :) I have always thought about salmonella, not house fires with thawing a turkey on the kitchen counter. This is something else!! I will remember this I do believe for years to come. So everytime I get ready to prepare a turkey from now on, just know that I will be thinking of you and this post :)

hi there GardenGerty i am sorry for your friends that must of been very sad did they loose much at all my next door neighbours they had a fire too and it happened they were trying to make a baraque and what happened was it blew up the gas bottle and the gargage got burned i am glad nothing else happened i am glad it did not go in the house and they are renting the house so i wonder what the person is saying who owns the house cause he is trying to sell the house but i am still glad that there ok thanks for this discussion

I normally put mine on a Plate and leave to defrost in the Oven at night so it is not out in the open for anything to get on it The next morning I will put it in the Fridge until I am ready to cook it

Anytime I thaw anything I put in in one side of the sink for two reasons 1) I worry about germs and 2) b/c any moisture that comes from the thawing will run all over the counter. I am very picky about how my dishes are done and scald everything everytime I wash them. I also keep an extinquisher near the stove just in case and our stove has 2 small cans under the exhaust hood that open and spray a foam in case of a fire. I'm very careful with making sure burners and cookers are off and Hubby double checks. I also never leave anything cooking when I go to bed or leave the house. My Mom will put a turkey in before bed and let it cook through the night...I couldn't do that. **AT PEACE WITHIN** ~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~

WOW! That must have been horrible! I don't typically thaw my poultry on the counter since you usually get a pool of water under it, besides the salmonella problem. I'm sure the water didn't help much when it came time to put out the fire, lol, but I'm surprised it didn't cause the toaster to short out instead of causing a fire. I rarely unplug my appliances or electronics unless there's a thunderstorm directly over our area, but I do try to stay a little safer with surge protectors. It's also a good practice not to overload your sockets. ;)