Just the other day, somebody in Devon stuck a Christmas pudding in a microwave oven to cook and nearly lost their home when the darn dessert caught fire without warning.

Now don't go checking the calendar just yet. You haven't slept through autumn. It's still September and the winter holidays are months away.

All the same, it would appear that some people are so fond of Christmas - not the Christmas spirit, just the food - that they're cooking Christmassy dishes long before their time.

Firefighters had to intervene

When the Christmas pudding caught fire in the microwave oven and thick smoke started coming out of the appliance, somebody called the emergency line and asked for help from local authorities.

Firefighters reported at the scene, ready to put out the blaze. Much to their surprise, they found that they had been called in to assist in putting out and removing a charred Christmas pudding.

“Two fire engines from Barnstaple attended a report of a smoke detector sounding within a flat at the above address [Barum Court, Litchdon Street, Barnstaple].”

“On arrival the crews confirmed that this had been a small fire involving a Christmas pudding within a microwave,” the Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Service writes in a report.

Nobody was hurt in the blaze

While it is true that the Christmas pudding set ablaze coughed out a whole lot of smoke, enough to worry the entire neighborhood, the flames didn't cause all that much damage.

According to the firefighters sent to investigate the fire, the blaze was confined to the microwave oven. So, other than the appliance and the pudding itself, there were no victims.

“The damage was confined to the Christmas pudding itself, crews made the area safe and ventilated the property,” the Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Service explains.

All the same, let this be a lesson to anyone thinking about cooking pudding in a microwave oven.