It's A Wonderful Dinner

Well, the fire's out...

That's how all holiday stories should begin.

Christmas eve, my sister-in-law was making a fancy, French dinner at mom's house. I can't pronounce it but it involved filet mignon and salmon and cognac. It was the cognac that brought about the fun.

I arrived late for this portion of the evening but I made it into the kitchen in time to see the range hood afire. This was not part of the recipe. As fires go, it was small and contained and not really very scary but, it was annoying as all get out. When she flambeed (?) something on the stove top, the flames lept up to the exhaust fan igniting some grease that had collected around the fan assembly. Evidently, it doesn't take much. The plastic assembly then caught fire as did the wires that powered the fan and the light. The circuit breakers did their job and tripped. That's a good thing. The stove is on a separate circuit from the lights in the kitchen and that's a good thing too. It's best not to perform these stunts by firelight.

Like I said, it was contained. It just happened to be contained in a very awkward spot. If a pan catches fire on a stove top you can easily cover it, eliminating the oxygen needed to fuel the fire and the problem is solved. But, up under the hood, with a mounting bracket in the way, it was hard to suffocate this fire. It was an excellent opportunity to use a fire extingusher- one rated for all types of fires. One just like the one I was intending to purchase for just such an ocassion...

I get premonitions from time to time. They usually manifest themselves in odd ways like opting NOT to step outside for a smoke because the boss is about to show up unexpectedly and he won't be happy about that no matter how much I've been busting my ass up to that point... But, the night before, at another sister's house, i had noticed that her husband had a fire extinguisher in the hall just outside the kitchen and I thought to myself, I should get mom one of those...just in case...

No one panicked. I was very pleased about that. It *seemed* to go on for about five long minutes but it was quite a bit quicker than that. Once I determined there was no danger of electrocution, I got my hands in there with some towels and choked the life out of that fire. This wasn't all that easy and it took a couple of tries. Melting plastic, fire and fibers don't mix real well- they tend to ignite! I Suffered only a burn on the inside of my forearm from the melting plastic. No big deal. I didn't even cry. I went in the basement, made sure all potentially dangerous circuits were off- just in case- took the range hood off and capped off the wires. Wa la!

Dinner survived the incident and was, as the French might say, "le fooking awesome!" The peppercorns on the filet were a little much for me though. Now, off to Home Depot for a fire extingusher. I hope they're on sale!

Merry Christmas!