Yesterday I was in the back of our office chatting with Joe, when all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off. I thought, “Are you kidding! A fire drill when it is 0 degrees outside!” Then, I smelled it…popcorn. Someone in our office, I will not name them, placed popcorn in our microwave and did not monitor it. As I heard later from bystanders, when the bag was opened up a huge amount of smoke billowed out of the bag.

As we opened the front door to air out the office, we saw our building manager out on a walkie-talkie and the one who will not be named telling them that it was us and it was just burnt popcorn. The whole 510 Marquette building fire alarm had gone off. A few minutes later the sound went off but not that annoying blinking light. Then after that there was an announcement that it was a false alarm and not to worry.

Once everyone was back in the office all we could do was laugh and run around like children, making jokes, and telling our version of the story.

Febreeze was sprayed and things finally settled back into our regular rhythm.

When I got into work today, there was a hint of burnt popcorn smell in the air. Every time someone microwaves something it brings back the smell. Another co-worker was heating up a Trader Joe’s Chicken Enchilada (try one they are great!). He placed it on defrost but instead of doing that our microwave just cooked it and burned the bottom of it. At least the fire alarm did not go off again but now it smells like burnt popcorn chicken enchilada.

So the question is…do we have a defective microwave or is it user error?

Please view the following video. Azul 7 Dies in a Fire.