"Karen, there are flames in the oven. Is that okay?"
We'd cooked the ham and it was out. I was standing at the counter slicing it when this question was posed to me. I had flipped the oven to "clean" after removing dinner because...well...it needed cleaning. It was a dreary, rainy day and we would be home all afternoon, so it seemed like a good time to run the clean cycle.
Not!
I knew Mensa boy was genuinely worried when he said "Do you think we ought to call Harold?"
Harold is volunteer firefighter. If you don't want the big red truck rolling up your neighborhood and into your driveway, call a firefighter at home, I guess. For advice?
I demurred. Then suggested we cut the circuit breaker to the oven. It's a gas oven, but the igniter, which snaps periodically to keep the gas lit and the oven at an even temperature, is electric. As far as I know the mechanism that shuts off and on, releasing gas into the oven, is electric too.
At any rate, 3 circuit-breakers later (who the heck LABELED these things? The two marked "range" didn't do the trick), the oven went dark and the fire went out. The door was still locked. But later, after it all cooled, we put the power back on the oven door unlocked itself.
Then Mensa Boy spent a part of his Christmas afternoon cleaning the oven by hand.
I doubt he wants that to be one of our new family Christmas traditions.
8:14:20 AM 
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