Thanksgiving 2010

Well this Thanksgiving will be one that the Williams family will remember for a long time.

This year my whole family (my dad, brother, Tom, his wife, Dawn, and their daughter, Adeline.  My two sisters Jackie and Joanna and Joanna's husband, Shane.)  came to our house.  This was my second time doing Thanksgiving.  I'm really glad this event wasn't my first years experience. 

I got up at 5 am and prepared the turkey.  Nothing else needed to be started until around noon.

Around 12:30 I went and starting making all the side dishes.  A little while later my sisters, Jackie and Joanna, and my sister-in-law, Dawn, came to help me in the kitchen.  We were busy preparing everything. Everything was running somewhat on time.  As each side finished we would cover it so it wouldn't become cold. (this will come into play later)

At 1:15 I went to take the turkey out of the oven.

As I tried to take the pan out it became really flimsy and I noticed it was dripping grease.  I didn't want to try and pull it out by myself and ruin the main dish so I yelled for Thomas to come help.  He removed it with no problems and we replaced it with the sweet potatoes and biscuits.   My dad starting carving the turkey, Joanna started the gravy and I continued to put things into place.  Within minutes of taking the turkey out of the oven Joanna started coughing and complaining that smoke was bothering her and it was hard for her to breathe.  She has been battling a cold so none of us thought much of it.  (she was standing by the oven vent and was breathing in the smoke from the oven that I was about to discover.)

When the sweet potatoes were done I went to the oven and opened the door.  Black smoke came rolling and I mean rolling out of the oven.  My dad, Joanna and I started coughing and coughing.  My first thought was I had burned the sweet potatoes and they were smoking, but at the exact moment my brain was comprehending that the entire bottom of my oven ignited in flames.  I slammed the door close and went running for the living room where the rest of the family was.  I think I yelled the ovens on fire, but all I remember is people running into the kitchen.  By this time the house was filling with dark smoke and flames were coming out the bottom of the oven.

A few of us grabbed the kids and ran them upstairs to get them away from the smoke, a few of us starting opening windows, doors and anything else that would let smoke out and a few of us grabbed the fire extinguisher, which was in the back of the cupboard wrapped in the box (I mean, who needs a fire extinguisher.) and my brother, Tom, starting putting the fire out. 

It was so scary to see all the smoke.  Everyone was coughing so hard and gasping for air.  When my brother started putting the fire out the combination of him using the extinguisher and the smoke from the flames made my brother completely disappear from sight.  Luckily, we had just finished drying the crystal dishes to use and had left a extremely wet towel laying right next to the stove.  So my brother was able to grab that and throw it over his face.

Once the fire was out we were able to examine the damage... sweet potatoes and biscuits- no hope, the rest of the meal- great, the kitchen and anything in it including people- covered in ash.  (We were able to conclude that the turkey pan had gotten a hole in it, probably when I put it in the oven, and dripped grease the entire 7 hours.  Then at some point the aluminium foil on the bottom of the oven ignited.)

We waited for the smoke to clear, closed all the windows and doors and waited for the heat to return in the house, removed all the covers from the food and had a very nice Thanksgiving.

Hope your Thanksgiving was less eventful.

Happy Thanksgiving!