To begin with, on Saturday, Jessica was in a pretty severe dirt biking accident. On Sunday she was in a lot of pain and couldn't move around. My other roommate, Jennie, and I were getting ice for her banged up knee, heating pads for her back and neck and shoulders, and ibuprofen for everything else. She is pretty banged up.
The heating pads are where things get dicey. I have two of those flannel bags filled with rice that you stick in the microwave. They are fabulous when you are sore, because they hold heat forever and you don't have to plug them in. So, I stuck them in the microwave for Jessica's back, and because they can get too hot, I wrapped them in some towels.
Last night before bed, Jessica was saying how her back felt so much better but her legs were hurting. I suggested she try the heating pads again. She's mobile now, so she could do the microwaving herself. I told her to microwave each for about 5 minutes. About 5 minutes later, Jessica came to my room and told me my towel and heating pad had caught fire in the microwave, and was I mad that they were burnt. Because my first thought was for the towel and heating pad, not Jennie's microwave. Here's what happened:
Jessica put the heating pad wrapped in the towel in the microwave, which would only make it less likely to heat up, but not a fire hazard. Then she went to her room to wait. Which is sad because she missed the arcing. See, the towel was a Christmas towel with metallic embroidery.
Jessica came down to check on it, saw the fire, tried to blow it out, yep, blow it out, and when that just fanned the flames, she threw water on it.
Fire out, towel and heating pad burnt, microwave still working. As you can see, it wasn't a little fire.
P.S. Not one smoke alarm went off. I guess I'm buying batteries today.
P.P.S. Jennie wasn't mad because her microwave still works. She just made the new rule that Jessica can't use any electrical appliances without supervision. Jessica agreed.
2 comments:
Too funny! Sounds a lot like a microwave incident I had with my roommate in college. It involved her microwaving a toll house cookie for 5 minutes just to get it" warmed" up. Needless to say we did not allow her to use the microwave again without supervision as well. I have not thought about that in such a long time. I can still smell the pungent aroma of burnt chocolate....YUM!
Jessica's just lucky I didn't come home and rip her head off! You know me I am the mean one in the house. :)
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