So I'm taking a nap upstairs, and wake up to this bad smell. I get up and open the bedroom door...and not only is the smell worse in the hallway, but there's smoke.
Downstairs, the smoke is thick. Not so much that I can't breathe or see, but enough that it's so hazy I have to leave the front door hanging open in 30º weather.
I check my first thought, the kitchen, and sure enough, through the haze I can see one of the tally lights for the stove's burners is on, and there's white smoke billowing from the pot on that burner. I look take the lid off and the smoke is so thick I have to go outside to keep breathing.
When I come back I can see that inside the pot is a black, charred, congealed mess. I take the pot outside, have to stop and catch my breath again, and then get back inside and throw open every door and window I could find.
What had happened was my wife had gone to her sister's house, and she'd left beef browning on the stove. She thought she turned it off.
So now the house stinks. We went to Home Despot and got some Zep smoke odor "eliminator" and a huge bottle of Pine-Sol.
The funny part was that when we were driving to Home Despot, I noticed that the stink was "following" us. Since I had been home, I got permeated with that burnt-dead-flesh smell. When we got to the store the guy who helped us was trying to suppress a chuckle at my malodorous condition. But the really funny part was when we passed another couple who were shopping, and I overheard the wife say to the husband, "Yeah, it really stinks in here! It's terrible!" I felt like such a social outcast. Then the girl at the checkout counter looked at me strangely because I insisted on standing six feet away from her while she rang up our order.
Anyway, we've sprayed the air and washed down ceilings, walls and floors, and I'm sure we'll be doing it tomorrow too. I've also got to get some heavy-duty fabric cleaner so we can clean the carpets and upholstry.
And yes, I've had a good, long shower.
Downstairs, the smoke is thick. Not so much that I can't breathe or see, but enough that it's so hazy I have to leave the front door hanging open in 30º weather.
I check my first thought, the kitchen, and sure enough, through the haze I can see one of the tally lights for the stove's burners is on, and there's white smoke billowing from the pot on that burner. I look take the lid off and the smoke is so thick I have to go outside to keep breathing.
When I come back I can see that inside the pot is a black, charred, congealed mess. I take the pot outside, have to stop and catch my breath again, and then get back inside and throw open every door and window I could find.
What had happened was my wife had gone to her sister's house, and she'd left beef browning on the stove. She thought she turned it off.
So now the house stinks. We went to Home Despot and got some Zep smoke odor "eliminator" and a huge bottle of Pine-Sol.
The funny part was that when we were driving to Home Despot, I noticed that the stink was "following" us. Since I had been home, I got permeated with that burnt-dead-flesh smell. When we got to the store the guy who helped us was trying to suppress a chuckle at my malodorous condition. But the really funny part was when we passed another couple who were shopping, and I overheard the wife say to the husband, "Yeah, it really stinks in here! It's terrible!" I felt like such a social outcast. Then the girl at the checkout counter looked at me strangely because I insisted on standing six feet away from her while she rang up our order.
Anyway, we've sprayed the air and washed down ceilings, walls and floors, and I'm sure we'll be doing it tomorrow too. I've also got to get some heavy-duty fabric cleaner so we can clean the carpets and upholstry.
And yes, I've had a good, long shower.
