By Chris Marchand

Area resident Jane Snider was thankful last week for the kind treatment she received in the care of the Oxdrift and Dryden Volunteer Fire Services after a close call at her Hwy. 601 home.

On the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 29, Snider’s older model microwave oven started a fire in the kitchen after a foil tray was placed inside.

“Being an older person, I went for a nap but I didn’t quite get to sleep because I smelt smoke,” said Snider. “ By the time I got to the kitchen, you couldn’t even see. The microwave had burnt right out — completely destroyed.”

Told by telephone dispatchers to leave her home immediately because of the thick noxious smoke, Snider was able to grab just one of her cats before heading outside.

“They responded in a really kind and thoughtful way — they took care of my pets. They even put my cats in their vehicles. Doreen stood with me the whole time. They used that new machine to put oxygen back in the house and they went over every inch of the place with an infra-red camera. I was grateful for that. I want people to know what a great group they are.”

In the vicinity of the old Sprucedale School, the incident was attended to by members of the Oxdrift Volunteer Fire Department with mutual aid support from the Dryden Fire Service.

With the fire thankfully contained to the appliance and little more than smoke damage to contend with, Snider says she feels lucky and humbled by her brush with danger. She plans to upgrade to a new model of appliance and cautions all to avoid placing metallic objects in a microwave.

“It was one of the first microwaves that came out,” said Snider.

Dryden Fire Service’s Reagan Breeze cautions microwave oven owners to be more careful in the safe operation of any appliance — new or old.

“Just be aware of it,” said Breeze. “A lot of times people don’t realize they have gold, or metallic rims on teacups and that can cause problems.”