I use cast iron skillets, and I dry them the old fashioned way--turn the burner on under them. So one sunny day I cleaned up the eggs in the skillet and turned the burner on under it. Started wiping the counter, and then dear son called me outside to play whiffle ball.

We played whiffle ball for about 30 minutes. I kept hearing this faint whistle in the background over the noise of the windchimes outside. When I finally got tired of whiffle ball, I approached the door only to realize the SMOKE ALARM was singing at full tilt, and had been for about 25 minutes!

I, of course, had left the skillet on the burner and never turned it off. The skillet was almost red-hot. There was no smoke at all (my smoke alarm is a kitchen-version and very sensitive). Whew, that was scary.

Karen