It’s now almost a week since Thanksgiving, yet it feels like just yesterday that I was preparing our festive meal. The gathering of family, delicious dishes, and joyful moments from last week created some truly unforgettable experiences. Among the highlights of Thanksgiving 2025, I must mention the oven fire that happened during the busy dinner preparations. Before I continue, I should clarify that the fire was promptly put out (thanks to my quick-thinking spouse) and that the fire department didn’t need to come to our home that day.
With that said, this blog isn’t solely about a tasty roll recipe – it also serves as a warning. These seemingly harmless rolls were the reason for the fire incident I mentioned. I contemplated whether or not to share the recipe, but I believe my experience might be beneficial to others.
I had planned my rolls so they would be warm out of the oven when I served them alongside our Thanksgiving meal. I mixed the dough following a recipe from saltnsprinkles.com on Wednesday, allowing it to rest in the fridge overnight. When I took it out on Thursday morning, it had risen wonderfully, and I completed the roll preparation while the turkey cooked on Thanksgiving Day.
Right about now, you might be curious about what went wrong and how I ended up igniting my oven. The simple answer is – I truly don’t know. Things began to spiral when I placed my two pans of rolls into the oven preheated to 450 degrees. Even with a pan positioned beneath the rolls to catch any excess oil, a significant amount ended up at the bottom of my oven, resulting in a rapid build-up of smoke filling my kitchen. My acute senses (along with my teary eyes) alerted me to the need to get the rolls out of the smoke-filled oven. I removed them halfway through baking and transferred them to my second oven to finish cooking. To my astonishment, the rolls were mostly unaffected by the interruption and didn’t even taste smoky.
I should have known that where there’s smoke. . . because when I opened the oven again to take out the drip pan placed under the muffin tins, flames erupted. I can’t fully explain the science behind it, but I can say that the combination of oxygen in the room, high heat, and the oil at the bottom of the oven led to a perfect storm of flames.