A man from New York City was at a concert with friends when he realized he had accidentally left the stove on at his apartment. So he ran home, worried that he might have started a fire, but what he found instead surprised him.
The 29-year-old, Richard Duong, shared the story in a TikTok post published earlier in September under the username @envisionaries, where he can be seen racing home to turn the stove off, before taking a bite of the food.
Duong told Newsweek that day he had a shift at work but wasn’t feeling well, so, around 4 p.m., he started making some soup before taking a quick nap.
“When I woke up, I had to get ready quickly to head to my friend’s apartment for a pregame before a concert we were seeing that night, and completely forgot about the soup on the stove,” Duong said.
After the concert ended, around 11 p.m., a friend asked him if he would eating anything or wanted to grab some food, and that is when it hit him; he had left the stove on for eight whole hours.
“I didn’t remember if it was on high or low or whether I’d put a lid on the pot, but I wasn’t willing to risk it, so I left my friends and rushed back home in a Lyft. Along the way, I started recording because my friends were asking for updates.
“I even FaceTimed everyone I knew, panicking that I might have accidentally started a fire,” Duong added.
envisionaries
Luckily, when Duong got back, the stove was on low, and the lid was slightly ajar, so the condensation kept anything from burning.
“I thought it’d be funny to post on TikTok but didn’t think it was going to blow up,” Duong said. “I also had no idea that leaving the stove on was such a common fear or that so many people had their own stories about it until I shared mine online.
“I don’t really cook so I didn’t think much about the stove until now. I’m just grateful it didn’t turn out worse,” Duong added. “I took a bite for the video but ended up throwing it out the next day. I’m never taking a nap again while cooking.”
While modern kitchen appliances are built with safety features to help prevent disastrous accidents, you should still ensure you are operating them carefully and turning them off when not in use.
In an article published by Portable Power Guides, Stellar Jackson, an electrical engineer since 2014, said that, even though leaving your electric stove on by itself may not cause harm, you should consider what is on or around it; and if anything is flammable, then you definitely run the risk of a fire.
Items such as curtains, paper towels, and clothing articles are all flammable and can start a fire in a matter of moments if left near the burning stove. The food you have left cooking on the stove could also cause fire, especially if it is fatty or oily.
Other concerns to keep in mind including loose wires, faulty sockets, and the chance of an overloaded circuit. So, if you think you left your stove on, go back and turn it off immediately.
The video quickly went viral on social media and has so far received over 3.8 million views and more than 155,700 likes on the platform.
One user, Erica, commented: “I left my sink running one time and came home to a new indoor swimming pool.”
Oakzap425 posted: “My anxiety is so bad I legit have to take pics of stoves and faucets before I leave because I fixate on things being left on while at work.”
Jen added: “My sister did this with something in her oven. She called the apartment manager who actually not only turned the oven off but put it in Tupperware in the fridge for her.”
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