Fire in the Kitchen!

I had a great idea for breakfast. Well, it was more like lunch today considering that I had class at 10am on a Sunday!...Moving on, I had an idea bout a week ago to make my own hash browns by grating a potato on a cheese grater then frying it. I made one batch and it was so awesome that I decided to go for round 2. I called my house to tell them how good this was, and ended up talking to my brother. While on the phone with him and grating my second potato, I left the hot grease on the stove because I was about to dump more stuff in there to fry. Something happened, and I heard that :::whoomp::: sound that happens when a fire first starts. So I looked behind me and saw 18 inch flames coming out of the frying pan. I said to my brother in a very calm voice "oh, shit, there's a fire in my kitchen." He thought I was messing with him because I sounded so calm. I thought "hmm, if I use the fire extinguisher, I'll have to buy another...let's get some baking soda from under the cabinet." I told my brother "hey, I'm gonna have to put you down for a minute, be right back." I opened a new box of baking soda (remember, water is a BAD idea to try to put out grease fires) and dumped about half of it into the pan.

Right about this time, my smoke detector goes off. Now, come to think of it, my LIFE SAFETY smoke didn't go off (the ones that you're required to have outside of the bedrooms), but my PRO-TECH (tied into the security system) smoke detector went off. So my alarm goes off. So my siren starts blaring. So I turn off the alarm. But then I'm thinking "crap...they're going to call the fire department, etc." But the monitoring people called me and I told them that everything is under control.

I guess I've always wanted to try that baking soda thing to see if it really could put out the fire. It can! That whole thing sure did make a mess though. I had baking soda all over the counter and stovetop, the pan is charred on the inside, but I think it will wash out with some steel wool and elbow grease. Thankfully, nobody/nothing got hurt.

My brother thanked me for the story that he's going to tell at school tomorrow.