The first rule of oven fires: Don’t open your oven door.
That’s the advice of KC Davis, a licensed professional counselor and the author of the aptly named How to Keep House While Drowning. She took to her TikTok account (@domesticblisters) with a PSA on oven fires that’s gotten a staggering 9.4 million views and 1.2 million likes since it was posted on Sept. 7.
She starts by calmly saying, “Rule number one: Don’t open the oven door,” while showing a flaming dish inside her oven.
She then finds a fire extinguisher and looks at the directions while the fire burns in the oven behind her. “You should probably learn how to use one of these before this happens,” she remarks.
@domesticblisters EVERYBODY STAY CALM #strugglecare #lifetips #emergencypreparedness ♬ Wes Anderson-esque Cute Acoustic – Kenji Ueda
She points out, “Fires need oxygen. The worst thing we could do is open the door and have a big gust of oxygen go in there. So, we’re going to wait to see if it goes out on its own and keep the door shut.”
She then cuts into a steak before returning to the oven to show a now-dwindling fire. A beat later, she reports the fire is out.
While resuming eating the steak, she reveals, “The first time I set my kitchen on fire was actually a stove fire. I freaked out and called the fire department while throwing a pan into my backyard and burning it to a crisp.”
“We’re not all calm during our first fire,” she observes, before cheerfully adding, “But you will be now.”
Was the video a metaphor? An actual PSA? Regardless of her intent, commenters loved it.
“Wait,” someone wondered, “everybody’s jobs don’t teach them PASS and RACE?”—referring to common fire safety acronyms.
Someone claiming to be a firefighter noted, “As a firefighter, THANK YOU for using your platform for such good demonstration,” adding, “You did so good!”
Another quipped, “So my sims just standing there doing nothing was the right move all along.”
A fellow Sims player added, “All 5 of my sims have developed the fear of fire trait so they constantly start fires then freak out.”
And at least one person needed the PSA, saying, “This is so helpful to me because i constantly fear an oven fire and YOU KNOW id throw that door open right away.”
The Daily Dot emailed Davis for comment.
