An unattended pot caused a lot of smoke but no fire in a home in Petrolia.
Petrolia/North Enniskillen firefighters were called to the house Sunday evening after a neighbour heard a smoke detector going off. He found the townhouse filled with smoke and called 9-11.
Chief Lawrence Swift says firefighters found a pot on the stove, so hot it was glowing.
He says it was fortunate the homeowners were neat and there was nothing near the stove which could have caught fire.
Whatever had been in the pot, he added, had long boiled away and burned to the bottom causing large amounts of smoke to waft through the home in the hour or so the owners were away.
He says the homeowners were fortunate neighbours heard the smoke detector because the heat would have kept building and eventually a fire would have started.
Swift says it is easy to forget to turn off a stove, so he recommends forgetful people always wear an oven mitt when there is something on the stove. That way they won’t leave the house without taking off the mitt and remembering to turn off the stove. “Kitchen fires are still the number one cause of residential fires in Canada,” he says.