Did I really almost set my house on fire the other day?
By The Horse
@TheHorse (238330)
Walnut Creek, California
March 16, 2020 8:20pm CST
The other day (actually, about two weeks ago), I came home to the smell of smoke in my house. It was not the plastic/electric smell that happens when your tube amplifier implodes. It was a actually pleasant smell, like a wood stove burning.
Donning my Sherlock Holmes hat, I took a small sniff of cocaine, lit my pipe, and pondered. I thought about what I had done differently that day, and then drifted into a dream before realizing that what I had done differently was: I had turned the dishwasher on before leaving the house.
As you have already deduced (elementary, my dear Horse), it was one of the chop sticks I had chosen to wash. It had fallen through the utensil holder, landed on a heating coil, and almost caught fire.
I will be more careful about washing wooden chop stocks in the future. Have you done anything similarly...um..."silly"...in recent weeks?
18 people like this
18 responses
@BarBaraPrz (51834)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
17 Mar 20
Wooden utensils should always be washed by hand.
4 people like this
@LadyDuck (502653)
• Italy
17 May 20
@MALUSE No problem, I also find many typos and errors when I check the comment I leave late in the evening. Just like you, we are only two it takes no time to wash the dishes after we finish our meals. I never liked to wash the glasses in the machine, I feared for those made in crystal and the others most of the time get stained. I think it is a waste of money to use one.
2 people like this
@Alexandoy (65302)
• Cainta, Philippines
17 Mar 20
Oh, oh, that would have been a big disaster. Yes, you could have burned your home.
2 people like this
@Alexandoy (65302)
• Cainta, Philippines
17 Mar 20
@TheHorse you gave me a laugh with those suppositions, waheehee.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (238330)
• Walnut Creek, California
17 Mar 20
@Alexandoy Glad I was able to provide a chuckle in these unusual times.
2 people like this
@vandana7 (102698)
• India
18 Mar 20
@Torunn What is the guarantee it won't survive somewhere on the handles of the oven? Grin... All movie scenarios. LOL
But seriously, govts. should mandate give 21day's pay upfront and ration food, and essential supplies which can be bought. Close all businesses and activities, except health care and services like electricity fire fighting and water. No traveling, not even elections. All buses, crafts, trains should stop.. people should sit home, find something to do during these days without visiting one another. We will all be liberated of the blessed virus. Yes, it will be huge loss. But 8 hours x 18 working days = 144 hours. Per day extra hour in balance period can more than make up for the loss. And spare our health care workers from exhaustion. Moreover, if the thing goes out of hand, loss can be much greater since skilled personnel will be down.
@wolfgirl569 (135881)
• Marion, Ohio
17 Mar 20
No I havent. It does help that I dont use chop sticks or a dishwasher.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (135881)
• Marion, Ohio
17 Mar 20
@TheHorse That is a good start 
I have enough trouble eating rice with a fork. No way I could keep it on stickes.
I have enough trouble eating rice with a fork. No way I could keep it on stickes.1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238330)
• Walnut Creek, California
17 Mar 20
@wolfgirl569 Oh, it is a lesson in patience. But I do it.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (98026)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
17 Mar 20
Things happen and not always for the best. Back in Latvia, we had a dishwasher that was not the best quality and had to have the water heated separately. Hard to explain but anyway once we filled the machine my hubby would put in a large electric coil to heat the water. One day he set it all up and we took his mom to the market in the city. It took us longer than expected and when we returned home the coil had landed on top of the plastic element that turns the laundry around while washing. The whole kitchen was full of acrid smoke from the burning plastic part and the coil was a loser and so was the washer but hubby got that old thing going again.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
17 May 20
Yes actually. I told my husband the other day that I almost caught out house on fire but for me it was my microwave.
I was running the dishwasher and it's always very noisy but recently, Fri I think while I was in the dinette five steps away it was making, or so I thought a very strange noise. I got up from my chair and realized the microwave had flames within.
I was cooking the smallest sweet potato ever about the size of half a braut. I got the potato button not thinking to see how many minutes that would cook for and it burnt it to a crisp. The potato had actual embers.
The light went off and I thought for sure I broke it but I could use it later that night. I will look for s pic I'm sure I took one.
This comment brought to you by ml's activity page, lol.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
23 May 20
@TheHorse I left hard boiled eggs cooking in the stove one year and then went to the mechanics. When I returned the eggs had blown up and all the water was cooked out. What s mess!
@LindaOHio (222624)
• United States
17 Mar 20
My husband is the one that has near misses in his life because he is forgetful. I'm glad there wasn't a fire!
1 person likes this
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
17 Mar 20
happens to all of us! part of the dishwasher experience.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (174590)
• United States
18 May 20
I put a wooden spoon into the dishwasher and turned it on. A little later I smelled smoke and found the spoon had fallen onto the heating coil. That was my favorite cooking spoon, too! *sigh*
