OK. Not rilly, but close enuf.
He was boiling WATER to cook oatmeal at 11:30pm. (WHY?!?!?!?) The pot ran outta water, started burning up (ugly teflon pot, BTW), which set off the smoke alarm & made a stinky smell.
I woke up. Opened windows, put on some fans to move the air around, etc.
Yours truly is funding the home repairs.
How long should I put up with this? :eek: 
:mad: :rolleyes: 
:smack:
It sounds like this isn’t the only incident. What other things have happened? Has he always been like this, or it this something new?
[Lorena Bobbitt]
Wait until he’s asleep and then *cut it off![/]
[/Lorena Bobbitt]
Thread title seems Dr. Seuss-worthy.
I had a cat once that jumped up on the (gas) stove, using a knob as a foothold. He turned the burner on under a pan that was on there. It started smoking, and when I got home from work I found that the apartment manager had opened my windows and curtains to air it out.
He was hungry and had a craving for oatmeal?
Well… when you marry someone you wind up with the bad as well as the good. I mean, I have a spouse who’s idea of cooking for himself is opening a can of peas and eating them at room temperature. Now yours, which really did just demonstrate “can’t boil water without burning it”, may need some basic cooking lessons or may need some suggestion like “honey, just use the microwave” assuming he isn’t totally inept at that but based on the experiences of people (including myself) who are married long term you’ll probably have to put up with this as long as you’re married to the klutz. He won’t change unless HE wants to change.
What home repairs? From your post it sounds like things just got a little smoky.
And, as to your question, how could we possibly answer that? Is he forgetful? An alcoholic? A malicious prankster? A person who occasionally makes mistakes?
This reminds me of the time my husband (now ex-husband, thanks be to Og) put a piece of deer liver in a pan of water to boil to make dog treats. He went outside, got distracted and returned *three hours later *to find the house full of smoke, the handle of the pan melted and the chunk of deer liver a blob of black ashy carbon in the bottom of the pan. As usual, he had used too little water and too high heat, but it was the three hours of “cooking” time that put it over the edge. He discovered it about 12:30 p.m. When I got home from work at 6:00 p.m., even though he had the house opened up for hours, the smell hit me like walking into a wall.
The really funny (read that: obnoxious) part of all this was that he was always saying that, even though I’d never forgotten something on the stove, he was sure that one day I’d burn the house down through “carelessness.”
As for how long you put up with this, AM, I can’t answer that. If you really think he’s not competent to use the stove, you might consider flipping off the breaker to the stove when you go to bed.
Flipping the breaker off only works for electric stoves. Just sayin’
Maybe she could turn off the gas valve to the stove, or remove all the burners.
Not enough information.
My spouse has always had a bad habit of putting something on to cook and then leaving the kitchen, getting distracted by something shiny, and then having all sorts of merriment as a result. The worst was when she put on the Bialetti pot to make coffee and walked away from it. Boiled dry and then melted. I happened to smell the burned coffee and hot metal and found a lovely mess on the stove top. I never tell her what to do, but I’ve laid down the law of “never leave the kitchen with a burner turned higher than ‘low’.” It’s had minimal success, but luckily it’s a very small house and I smell something long before it becomes a funeral pyre (she still scorches food). I still really worry that she’ll burn the place down when I’m traveling somewhere.
Wait? Are we still talking about Johnny L.A.'s cat?
Thanks, all! gobbless the SDMB. I’m still married; the house is still standing (& not burnt up – yet)!
And I’m sure more fun will follow :smack: :o 
OK - I guess you were just venting.
:smack: And you’d think I’ve thought about that, since I now have a gas stove.
Well, what do you boil when you want oatmeal?
But usually, gas stoves have electric pilot lights.
I could honestly use some lessons on how to cook oatmeal in the microwave. I’ve tried - in different microwaves using different bowls, but always following package instructions to the letter - and it invariably erupts into a molten, sticky mess that overflows the edge of the bowl (even if I use a really big one) and makes a mess on the floor of the microwave.
Is there any hope for such as I?