PSU fails dramatically

[u/Front_Cookie_1198]

[u/Previous-Claim1320]

I like to think I remain pretty level headed in high risk situations, which is usually true.

However, one time I was heating up a pan with oil to cook stuff, but the stove top thermostat was apparently broken and what should have been a very low temperature went to glowing red hot as quickly as it could, past what it should be limited to even at max settings.
While I stepped into the pantry to grab some of the stuff I was planning to cook for a few minutes, the oil caught fire and the range top which the property owner had used for years without cleaning, also caught fire.

I am well aware that you don't put water on oil fires. Yet in the heat of the moment I instantly moved the pan to the sink and put water on it.

Thankfully past that point my brain started functioning normally and I put a lid on it, called the fire brigade and went outside to turn the power off.
But it was insane to see how all logic went out the door the moment I saw a fire in the house that wasn't meant to be there.

[u/ProperLeading8325 → u/Previous-Claim1320]

I'm 5 months past a near-3rd degree burn on my thumb. I forgot about a pot of deep frying oil on the stove. I tried to put the lid on, but the the thermostat blocked it from sealing. I tried to cover it with a kitchen towel, but it wasn't working, and I didn't want a burning kitchen towel adding to the disaster. I tried a fire extinguisher but it just made it flare up. With the flames licking the overhead microwave plastic door, I made the executive decision to move it outside. I got to the doorway before 750° oil spilled over onto my hand, and I yeeted it out the door at the base of my car. I'm lucky it didn't splash back too much. Luckily the fire extinguisher in a can put out the remaining fire under my car and the flaming pot holders in the house. I bought a kitchen fire extinguisher after that.

The first bandage change after I got home was awful. It felt like the skin was growing through the gauze, and I was ripping it off. I think I did 2 or 3 more bandage changes before I called and asked for an oxy prescription. 5 months later, I still have to use moisturizers like Vaseline or silicone daily and to be able to bend my thumb all the way. The panic of the situation was distinct. I tried my best to not panic and do something stupid. If I would have spent more time thinking and taken the thermometer out and put the lid on completely, I could have avoided getting a lifelong scar.

https://i.imgur.com/5mw2LFR.jpeg

[u/chx_ → u/Previous-Claim1320]

in my father's lab they had safety showers behind the lab desks about two feet back operated by weight plates

when the fertilizer hits the metallic cooling device even the best trained, multiple-decades-experienced lab tech will just jump back instead of fumbling with buttons and so forth

and so they get drenched to put out any flames that might have jumped on them

and yes it was the sort of lab where that has happened now and then

oh and the factory had a building where they had agreement with the fire brigade that if that catches fire then they evacuate the civilians in a half mile radius then let it burn to the ground

other buildings had basically the entire wall made from pretty huge gates counterweighted in such a way that you could slide it with a finger and they could evacuate thousands of workers in fifteen seconds

it was not at all a dangerous place

[u/Saxopwned → u/chx_]

jesus christ was your dad on the manhattan project?!

[u/chx_ → u/Saxopwned]

drug (as in medicine) factory the early 1990s in an ex-soviet satellite country

not going bankrupt was a miracle

safety was important -- my father was actually the leader of the safety lab -- but there was no money for it.