Where there’s smoke…

A smoky smell woke my daughter who in turn woke us. Her senses heightened by pregnancy, the smell of smoke disturbed her sleep. It would never have woken me. But the moment I woke up it was clear that something was not right.

The electricity had blown downstairs, having - thankfully - been tripped by something that took place in our oven; that much was clear. But it wasn’t too dark to see a heavy, smoky haze throughout the entire downstairs of my house.

It appears we had a fire in our oven. Somehow the turkey breast cooking overnight on low heat caught fire or spontaneously combusted. Or the oven malfunctioned. Or...something. I don’t know because it was so hot to the touch and the smoky stains on the outside of the oven told me the turkey is a lost cause anyway; and thank God that was all we lost tonight.

We quickly opened every window, turned the range hood on high, and wondered what could have possibly happened. We are still wondering. And still breathing the heavy stench of smoke that, although cleared out, seems to have permeated the very walls... We were all sleeping... I'm overwhelmed. So grateful that we are all ok.

With concrete and stone houses the norm where we live, house fires aren't nearly as common as they are in the states. Neither are smoke detectors. We actually bought them. But they didn't do us a darn bit of good sitting in the package as they have all this time. Thank God ours was a wake-up call. Not everyone wakes up from such a call...