XVIII : Aftereffects of the Fire in the Broiler

So, even though we thought we thoroughly cleaned off all the soot from the counters, cabinets, and even the ceiling, the next day, there were traces of soot again. Less of it, but still enough to make us clean the counter tops again. Not only were there still soot in the room, the stove didn't work anymore. The gas doesn't come out, and for once, I find it sucks having a gas stove. Sure, all the pans seem to heat up faster and the fire is cool to look at, but when there's no gas, there's no fire. I thought that it was because the firefighters probably turned off the gas in our room for safety precautions. But, apparently, the fire had burned the inside of the stove/oven and now the whole thing doesn't work. What to do? At least we have a water boiler.

And rice cooker!

Success! Steamed egg that is super soft that once a chunk is scooped out of it, it topples over. I love.

Too bad I can't live off of steamed egg. Healthily, that is. I wouldn't mind having different flavors of steamed egg or different ingredients put into it, but my body would probably go crazy from the overload of egg. What sucks is that I still haven't made myself an omelette yet!

XVII : Fire in the Broiler

Unfortunately, I did not think to snap a picture of this to record as a memory. It started with my roomie, Aly, and last year's roomie, Angela, making cookies together. They had the oatmeal cookie dough all mixed and prepared, so they were preheating the oven. Suddenly, white smoke started coming out from the oven and the nearby fire alarm went off. This had happened before, so I turned on the fan above our stove to suck out the smoke, but then, a gap in the stove that probably let out smoke from the oven part started releasing gray smoke. A lot of gray smoke. This was not normal. My other roomie, Lynn, came out of her room, where she had been napping. I looked at the oven and saw orange flames at the bottom where the broiler was, and the smoke continued to engulf our living room. We opened the windows and the balcony door to let out the smoke, but our second smoke detector alarmed. The room was heavy with smoke now, and it was getting into the hallway. My computer was located on the floor near the kitchen, and I took the time to actually shut it down. But, seeing that the smoke was getting thicker, I went out into the hallway where my roomies were. Lynn remained to try to put out the flames before they escaped from the oven. She found the fire extinguisher at the end of the hall, but could not break open the glass with the trash can she held. Our neighbors, guy friends of Lynn's, were not home, so she resorted with filling up the empty trashcan with water from the tub and pouring it into the stove. Three times she did this, and the fire finally died, but a bunch of ash was left. Outside, Aly kept frantically calling "Lynn! Come out of there! Where are you! Get out of there!" She dialed our school's emergency number and handed me the phone, so I talked to the officer on the other side. I didn't realize I was panicking until I started talking and had no idea how to coherently explain the situation. But he connected me to the fire department after hearing me say "fire under stove." and answer "no" when he asked if I had contacted the fire department. I had to re-explain the situation to the fire department, in which they requested the number, and I handed the phone back to Aly. Then, I walked back into the smoke-filled hallway and into our apartment to see Lynn throw the third trashcan-ful of water at the stove. We grabbed our phones and she grabbed her wallet before exiting the whole apartment complex.

Outside in fresh air, neighbors on their balcony saw the smoke coming out from our hallway. They exclaimed, "are you guys alright? What happened?" and we explained that our stove had caught fire underneath. Whoever was on our floor evacuated outside with us. A DPS (Department of Public Safety) officer passed by our building on one of those chariot things that you stand on. He came back after a U-turn. A small fire truck came and Lynn exclaimed, "that's it?" And then four big trucks came after that. I was glad they were prepared for the worst. Firefighters entered the building and told us to get further away. More safety officers came to the scene. And we waited. The firefighters came back outside after a while, and the smoke declined. They asked whose apartment it was and Aly, Lynn, and I stepped forward. The safety officers then inquired "so, who was making cookies?" and it became a much more relaxing chat. Aly replied and the officer said "You didn't make them for us? That's why this happened. When you make cookies, you'd better make some for us." and we laughed. The firefighters came out and asked, "so, who was making cookies?" too. But one answered "oatmeal raisin?" when Aly replied that they were oatmeal cookies. And when she said no, he said "That's why this happened. You have to have the raisin!" It was good talking to them. We thanked them all as they left. And Lynn also made sure to tell one of the firefighters about her failed attempt to open the fire extinguisher. He had commented, "I noticed you did not use the fire extinguisher." Yes, we were not strong enough to break that glass.

So, we returned to our apartment and began cleaning up the soot that was left all over the room and the water that was spilling out from the oven. Some of the cooking pans we had stored in the broiler had caught fire and were pieces of burnt clay. Somehow, they had not burned at 350 degrees when Aly was baking brownies, but had burned at 375 degrees for cookies. Ari was not home for all this. Cleaning took a long time, as we had to clean up ALL the black specs and the water. Used so many paper towels and swiffer towels. And I'm glad my mom made me bring all those SHAMWOW! sheets. They were all used (2 large ones and 3 small ones) for soaking up the water that had gotten onto the carpet. And the carpet is still wet. But then again, it was three trashcan-fulls.

This kind of excitement I would rather stay away from. Seeing the dark gray smoke spewing from the stove/oven was already too intense. Actually seeing the uncontrolled flames was overdoing it. And my respiratory system is weak toward smoke. The small amount I had inhaled made me cough and lose my voice for a while. I'm glad the fire didn't escape from the broiler though. Yay for contained combustion.

XVI : Double the Surprise

I was happily surprised on sunday to find this plop into the bowl before I beat it to make eggs and tomatoes with. :) And, to compare the yolk size with another [just a single lonely yolk], I took another picture.

Eggs are so gorgeous. And, the other day, I dropped one on the floor and exclaimed out loud when it hit the ground. One of my roomies came over and asked, "What happened? Is everything okay?" NoooO! I dropped an egg on the floor! At least tears didn't come out this time. But still, if I had dropped my leftovers onto the ground and had t throw it all away, I don't think I would have cried out loud like that.

On another note, how do you write something that touches the reader's heart? It doesn't have to be sad, serious, or solemn. It can be joyful, lifting, or just funny. It would be great if I could write a piece that made the application reader laugh out loud, give out a little chuckle or something. But does it come on purpose? Or do I have to think carefully? Writing is so difficult for me. There's something in this mind of mine that just hasn't clicked about writing. Where is the enlightenment!

This morning, I was scared by a cockroach climbing around near the corner of my mattress (I don't have a bed frame). I freaked out and woke my roomie, who freaked out with me. But she suggested I trap it in a tupperware, so I went to get that and we pulled out my mattress a bit and I put the tupperware over the big black cockroach. Then I sat back, shaking a bit and not knowing what to do next. My mind kept thinking "It's too early to be dealing with this!!" Essentially, I was scared of it, which surprised me. I never knew I was scared of cockroaches. But, I scooped the lid underneath the tupperware and got the cockroach to go on top of it. And then pressed it shut tightly. When I lifted the tupperware, I noticed I had caught the legs in between where the lid sealed tightly with the box's rim. I freaked out even more to see that the middle leg had detached from the body. and the other two long legs were flattened. I cried out loud and my roomie gave me moral support, encouraging me as I went out to our balcony and prepared to throw the cockroach away from our apartment. But the image of the roach climbing out of the box frightened me, and when I opened the lid, I gave a yelp and dropped the lid to the floor while the cockroach dropped along with it. That was that. But my hands remained shaky and I felt my arm muscles going weak. They remained weak until I got to the pharmacy to start work. My goodness, what a morning.