What's that smell?

So yesterday my husband asked me to bake cookies for our friends. With the dough ready, I turned on the oven so it could preheat and went on to put the kids in the tub. I got preoccupied playing with bathtub toys with them until I smelled something...odd. So I told the girls to play nicely and I would be right back.

I walked out into the hall and saw my living room was filled with smoke. Then I dashed to the kitchen (and my house is not big) and saw black smoke pouring from the oven. ACK! I put my hands on the handle and talked myself into opening the over door. OK, 1, 2, 3...open! OH MY! There are FLAMES five inches tall in my oven. SLAM! "Oxygen feeds a fire...keep the oven door closed!" "Don't throw water in there...not sure what is on fire" I am staring, pacing, and trying not to panic while looking for the fire extinguisher...which I could not find!!!

I instant messaged my husband whose status said he was "Away", but I was asking where the fire extinguisher was anyway. I did not want to freak out. As I am trying to remain calm, I check the oven again and their were still FLAMES!!! So I start thinking I may start to panic. Do I call 911? No, I could not because my house was a mess and the flames were contained in the oven. I opened the garage door and the front door and my dogs ran out and down the street. I stood their thinking, very briefly of course, do I call my dogs back in, check on my girls, or figure out what to do about the fire. "Call someone, my confused brain told me, but stay calm." So I called my friend Nicole and told her that I was sorry that I could talk photography because my oven was on fire. She did not believe that my oven was on fire because I was so calm, but did offer that I should throw some baking soda on the flames. "Oh, that is right baking soda!" So I grabbed my large bag of baking soda and threw hand fulls of baking soda on the flames and slammed the door again. I then checked on the girls, who were still in the tub, and then went outside to coax my dogs home with dog biscuits.

My girls were starting to yell to get out of the tub, my dogs wanted to run back outside, but the flames were out! But baking soda was everywhere and my oven door was black, but the fire was out! Did I say that already?

At the end of it all, I realized that butter from the ooey gooey bread pudding, that I made the day before, had spilled out of the pan. When the oven was preheating the butter caught on fire...it was a lot of butter.

After I got the girls out of the tub, we had a little talk about what to do when something is on fire. Choosing not to call 911 because you think your house is too messy is not an option.

So I am cleaning my oven today and then I will bake the cookies for my friends later.

I guess I need to clean my oven more often...