Towels burn in broiler mistaken for storage space

Site staff by Site Contributor

Madison fire officials are asking tenants in new apartments to familiarize themselves with new appliances after a renter in a downtown apartment stored towels in what turned out to be a broiler.

Firefighters were called at 9:17 p.m. Monday to an apartment in the 100 block of East Gilman Street on a report of a fire in an oven.

The occupant told firefighters she was cooking macaroni and cheese when she began to smell something burning. She said she opened the drawer beneath the oven and found her kitchen towels on fire. She put out the fire with an extinguisher before firefighters arrived, but the charred towels created a lot of smoke.

The woman said she was new to the unit and didn’t know the bottom drawer of the oven was a broiler, not a drawer meant for storage.

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