Fire!

It completely slipped my mind to write a blog post about this when it happened…

A few weeks ago my flatmates and I were having a quiet evening at home,  I was chatting with my dad on the phone.  Suddenly the power goes out, and as I go into the hallway I smell smoke.  The microwave was my first destination.  I called one of the flatmates over, and opened the door.

Smoke came pouring out, and the object that had been in the microwave was on fire!  Flames, the kind you roast marshmallows on.  My flatmate blows it out, then grabs a cup of water and dumps it on.  Meanwhile, I grab a flashlight and go to find the fusebox (I just moved in to my current flat a month ago).

Turns out the fusebox is ABOVE the front door.  We live on the top floor, so the ceilings are very high.  (So that is what the ladder in the corner of the kitchen is for!)  We get the power back on for an hour, then it goes out permanently for the rest of the evening.  Also, while this was going on all three of us were laughing, shouting, and generally causing mayhem.  Our neighbor downstairs said he heard us, but that since I was laughing he figured everything was ok. 

When the guy came the next day to check on everything, he said the microwave was really old and needed to be thrown out, something about wiring…suffice to say, it went straight into the dumpster. 

When I got back on the phone with my dad that night, I thanked him for teaching me how to do these things around the house, how the fusebox works, painting, mowing the lawn, trimming hedges, using tools, and fixing random objects.  I think he was pretty amused by the entire incident.  🙂