Cooking safety horror stories.

[DampCharcoal]

Many moons ago during my Friday's stint, some poor soul dropped a rack of wine glasses in the back of the house during a Sunday lunch rush. The kitchen and expo area were shut down and we gave the lunch crowd free gift certificates for dinner. Talk about irate customers!!! Many people understood but many more didn't understand the concept of glass shards+food=hospital visit. :roll:

 

[WayneT]

I remember once when working as a kitchenhand, working on my own, it was about 2 am and I had just about finished my shift. The floors had been scrubbed with degreaser, mopped up and the place sparkled, I was very proud of myself. Then I remembered that I had not replaced the oil in the deep fryers that I had cleaned out.

all I had to do was replace the oil that had been filtered. So in it went. Fryer one, fryer two. Fryer three.
What I did not realise was that the drain valve had not been shut off on fryer 3.
Well, I went and got changed, and returned to the kitchen for a final check of my duties before lights out and lockup.
Can you imagine the knots in my stomach and the expletives uttered that I had learned in that kitchen but never normally used, when I saw all the oil over the kitchen floor, it was everywhere, under benchers and every nook and cranny it could run too.
I finished cleaning it up, in my own time. with about 10 minutes to spare before the Day shift started. There was one dirty, red faced kitchen hand confronting them at the start of their shift. Not much degreaser left either.

 

[crewsk]

Crewsk, maybe you need to ask Santa for a very thick, steel-backed apron.

That sounds like a good idea but I think I would have trouble moving aroung it it. Don't you?

 

[Tasha]

VERY COSTLY MISTAKE

Well, my MAJOR blunder in the kitchen was over a year and a half ago when I burnt our kitchen down. Thus the saga goes........

I was getting ready for work and was going to fry a couple of eggs for an egg sandwich to eat before I left. I put the eggs on a tea towel on the counter next to the stove, put the pan on stove, it and put in my butter. While I was waiting for my butter to melt so I could break my eggs, my cell phone rang back in my bedroom. So, I removed my pan off the burner, therefore removing any fire hazard in my mind, and went to answer my phone. I ended up talking on the phone for a few minutes and then having forgotten about leaving a burner on, I went to get in the shower. For some reason I suddenly realized that I left my burner on so I went to turn it off figuring I didn't have time to fix my sandwich. I rounded the corner into the kitchen and my cabinets were ablaze!! I guess in the process of removing the pan from the stove, I knocked the tea towel onto the burner. The towel was also lying on the coffee pot that was not on so when the towel caught fire, it caught my coffee pot which started the cabinets which torched the center part of my house. Complete rebuild from the studs, new roof and back one-third of my house.

Moral of the story is: NEVER, NEVER LEAVE A BURNER ON AND NO PHONE CALL IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU MIGHT RISK LOOSING SO MUCH!!!!!!

 

[SierraCook]

Then I looked at my right thumb and saw a flap of skin hanging from the first knuckle to the tip of my thumb.
I couldn't stop the bleeding and drove to the hospital, must have been on automatic pilot, and got seven stitches in it.
LESSON: Always use the right utensil for the job.

WayneT, now you know how I felt two weeks ago. Hope your thumb is better soon.

1. Remove all sharp objects from sink before sticking your hands in the sink. Result a trip to the ER and six stitches.

2. Stir hot liquids slowly and make sure your pot is deep enough. Result spilling hot liquid on arm and several small burns.

3. Never leave anything unattended on the stove. Result one ruined pan. Luckily, no fire.

4. Always push the coffee filter basket all the way in on the coffee maker. Result one flooded counter with coffee grains everywhere.

 

[ronjohn55]

Well, it's not exactly cooking, but it is large scale, so I'll throw it in here...

I was cleaning up after brewing a batch of beer, and doing a thorough clean in place of the brewing rig. I had 15 gallons of cleaning solution (water and oxyclean) nearly up to a boil when I pulled a kettle off of the brewstand. It took about .5 seconds to realize I had forgotten to fasten the stand to the base. The resulting imbalance saw the entire stand, with 15 gallons of hot cleaning solution, and a still going propane burner, go crashing over.

Fortunatly it fell away from me, and I just had to jump fast to turn of the propane, and then sweep out the garage (which needed cleaning anyways...)

John

 

[Lugaru]

Man, that's a close call, it could of done some major damage. I tell you, its things like that which remind you how lucky you are to be healthy and alive.

 

[Ekim]

1) Turned on the stove to fry an egg. It was only on a few seconds, tops. But the handle was turned 180 degrees from where I needed it and I grabbed the pan with my bare hand. Two weeks of agony while typing.

2) Didn't watch where my thumb was while making eggs last Saturday. Now I have a divot in the outer curve of the thumb tip. Soaked through the fingertip BandAid almost instantly, but still went to work. Looks not too bad right now.

3) Turned on gas stove to heat a kettle. Did not ensure pilot light came on. Went to the rear of the house to read and await the kettle whistle. Gave myself serious gas poisoning that left me ill for two days.

4) Opened a canned ham and broke the key. Thought, "No problem" and pulled the strip of metal to get the rest of it open. I didn't feel a thing until the salt started soaking in and my blood started coming out.

Maybe I should stay out of the dang kitchen!

 

[luvs]

when i was a kid i left a wooden utensil in the blender and splintered it. i'm such a flake sometimes.
also, keep dishtowels and paper towels far away from the stove. just today a paper towel caught fire while my Dad was cooking even after i slid it pretty far from the stove.
always keep a box of baking soda in a cupboard or on a countertop right near the broiler. my boyfriend recently caught the grease from our filets on fire. i went right for the box of baking soda and dumped it on the flames. it put it out in about 2 seconds, literally. always throw it on a grease fire or at least get a lid on a burning greasy pan.
you guys have some great tips and pointers.

 

[middie]

never lick beaters when you have a tongue piercing.

 

[pdswife]

never lick beaters when you have a tongue piercing.

Ouch!

I've cut myself a million times... left steaming veggies too long and burned pans small things like that.

I one bad memory I have of a cooking disaster came from my mom. She's not a good cook. But, she makes the best home made French fries. We'd just moved in to a new house and she decided to make a batch. AFter awhile the oil got too hot and too used so she wanted to dump it out and start over. She picked a tupperware container to empty it in to. I told her over and over NOT to do it. That the plastic would melt but, hey I was just a kid... what did I know?? She did it... the plastic started to melt so she tried picking it up. The top part came up.. the bottom stayed down. Spilling hot oil all over the place. No fire but, it melted the counter and the floor. Not a nice sight. I did enjoy saying "I told you so".

 

[buckytom]

when i was young, i worked in burger king for a few months on the late night shift/cleanup crew. it was pretty boring, except for an occasional late night visit from eddie murphy, who lived nearby when he was on saturday night live.
well, one boring night, i was making one of my special 4 patty extra everything whoppers, and wasn't paying attention when i tossed a grease pencil used for marking the wrappers in a microwave. there was some time left on the cooking timer, so when i closed the door it turned on. a few seconds later, the grease pencil became a grease rocket inside the microwave, and smoked out the whole kitchen. it took me hours to clean out all of that black goo.

 

[Paint]

Nothing too bad.....when I was pregnant though (and had that famous pregnancy forgetfullness), I tried to fry some burgers and used dishwashing liquid instead of oil....I also managed to put some glasses in the washing machine along with the laundry.....

Another time I tried to lift a roasting pan with a 28lb turkey in it out of the oven by myself, which I should have been able to do, but for some reason the pan tipped and I poured about a pint of hot turkey fat over myself. My guardian angel must have been watching over me, because I wasn't burned badly, just a little sore & red for a couple of days.

A couple of years ago, my husband was picking my father-in-law up from the airport, as he was coming over from England to stay with us. Hubby called when he was about 20 minutes away, so that I could start the dinner cooking (pasta with a simple mushroom cream sauce). I put the olive oil in the pan to start heating it up, ready to saute the mushrooms and for some reason forgot about it. The entire house started filling with smoke, the fire alarms went off (which are monitored by ADT), ADT called, but I didn't know the code word so they could turn the alarms off, so they had to call the fire-service. Anyway, I opened all the doors to let the smoke out, my neighbour saw smoke pouring out the house and heard the alarms and dashed over to rescue us.....just as the fire-engine turned up, sirens and lights flashing....closely followed by hubby and father-in-law. What a greeting LOL!

I always use extra-hefty rubber gloves when washing up - it not only protects my skin from the detergent, but also from anything sharp that might be hiding in the soapy water.

Paint.

 

[masteraznchefjr]

flambou w/e the flaming stuff. yea i think i burned a lot of thigns lol

 

[buckytom]

not really a cooking horror story, but:
a long time ago, a good friend/co-worker and i would go to a houlihan's (franchised) restaurant on columbus circle every thursday night for happy hour drinks and free grub from a trough.
i was in love with the barmaid. big green eyes, beautiful blond hair, great personality, really funny, i was smitten.
so for months i put on the full court press. she never said no, kinda yes to a date, and strung me along like a pro, but i was a walking hormone back then so i guess i didn't mind. i drove her home after work a few times, kissed goodnight but was never invited up. when i finally got a few dates out of her, we would always meet after work, never a proper pick-me-up at home kinda thing. everything seemed to be a go.
well, i was given a few tickets to bermuda as a present, so i was thinking of asking her to go. i called her house one day, and a very annoyed guy answered. the tickets were for the next weekend, so i needed to know right away if she wanted to go. he told me she wasn't home, and would take a message. i told him about the tickets, and he asked why i was asking his girlfriend to go to bermuda with me. it all clicked. i apologized profusely, and couldn't wait to confront her. thursday came, and my buddy and i went in for dinner. i was blown away when she got angry at me for speaking to her boyfriend. she had supposedly warned me not to ever leave any personal info on her answering machine because her "roomate" was very nosey. i told her off, and was about to leave when the manager came over and informed me that she had broken a glass behind the bar right over the hurricane glasses, and used those glasses to pour our drinks instead of sending everything to the kitchen to be washed. the manager apologized, and asked me to leave my name and number in case i got sick later and was gonna sue. i still don't know if it was intentional or not. she said she was very upset and wasn't thinking.
i never found out what happened to her, but i think she got fired for it.
i ran into her boyfriend in another bar one night, and he was a gentleman about it, albeit thru the gritted teeth and dirty stares...

 

[ronjohn55]

Well, this probably doesn't rise to nearly the intruige level of Buckytom's story, but I had a classic "LOOK OUT!!" moment about 3 years ago.

Had just gotten the spiffy new 1/2 barrel brewery rig. (I only make 10 gallon or so batches, but the kettle has a volume of 15.5 - it's an old 1/2 barrel beer keg). I had finshed brewing, and was giving it a thorough clean in place.

It's a 3 tiered system, and I took one keg off the stand since it was done. It was while I was still holding the keg that I realized that the stand wasn't secured, and the entire stand, (complete with 2 other kegs, one of which was full of boiling cleaner) WITH A LIT PROPANE BURNER went tumbling over. Never knew I could jump that fast.

No real harm done though. Turned off the propane, picked up the stand and kegs, and the garage floor got an unexpected cleaning.

John

 

[PA Baker]

This happened before DH and I met so I was spared this event, but the story has lived on as family legend!

Nathan had gone up to visit his parents for the weekend. His dad was all excited to try the new griddle he'd gotten for the gas grill. They got up early and had pancakes on the back deck. All three of them commented that the pancakes had a bit of a lemon-y undertone that was actually quite tasty. Did Dad add lemon zest, lemon juice, use a different recipe? He said no, he'd just used the basic Bisquik recipe, as usual. It wasn't until Nathan offered to clean up that he noticed the large gallon jug of lemon-scented lysol on the kitchen counter. It was stored in the cupboard right next to the gallon jug of vegetable oil and Dad, half-asleep while making the pancakes had used Lysol instead of oil!

To this day, it shocks me that they didn't call poison control. They just rode it out, hoping that if they got sick, one of them could call 911 for help so it wouldn't be considered a purple Kool Aid moment!

 

[Lugaru]

To this day, it shocks me that they didn't call poison control. They just rode it out, hoping that if they got sick, one of them could call 911 for help so it wouldn't be considered a purple Kool Aid moment!

For some reason I just pictured the two of them watching the game with a gallon of milk in one hand and a cell phone in the other...

"Call 911 yet?"

"Nah... I think we can make it through the game before its absolutely necesary".

 

[PA Baker]

LOL--That's probably about what happened, Lugaru!

 

[mudbug]

LMAO, Lugaru - spoken like a man! A woman would only have waited until halftime.