My wife and kids are in NYC for the day*, bonding over a visit to the Met and then an evening show. I went out to a couple of stores to get stocked up -- we're feeding two young adults this week.
When I got home I put a burger on the stove to cook for dinner. This is not a problem for me. As a former stay-at-home dad I used to do all of the cooking. These days, with the kids usually out and just us at home, my wife shares the dinner cooking chore.
Anyway, when I lifted the pan's cover to flip the hamburger there was a flash, but the frying pan didn't catch fire. Instead, the filter in the range hood above it caught fire. I turned off the stove, then the vent fan. It was a small fire, but had my full attention, so I called 911. While I was on the line with 911 I smothered the flames with a wet kitchen towel. The operator suggested someone come out to check things out just in case, and that sounded like a good idea -- best to let a pro check something like this out.
I expected they'd send someone out with an infrared heat gun in one of the Fire Dept. SUVs.
And, in fact, an SUV showed up in minutes and a guy came in with an IR heat gun ...
... His car was followed by two more SUVs, two utility pick-up trucks, and two fire engines. All with flashing lights and spotlights trained on the house. No sirens, thank goodness. (We live at the end of a long dead end -- I expect to be explaining this to my neighbors for the rest of the week.)
The crew came through and checked everything out very thoroughly. Very, very thoroughly. The Fire Department Captain was there -- I know, because we're friends. I know his son from Cub Scouts, years ago. He's in the Dept. now, and he was there, too.
So, anyway, I was right, the fire was completely out. But it's good to have it professionally verified. Cleaning up the stove area under the burned out hood only took about ten minutes.
* In all honesty, if this had to happen I'm glad it happened to me, not the wife or kids. And I'm also happy they weren't home for it.