An apparently faulty electric oven caught fire in an apartment in the 7200 block of Lyndover Avenue in Maplewood around 10 a.m. Friday, which brought emergency crews from Maplewood, Brentwood, Rock Hill and Shrewsbury.
The apartment resident, Carla Strong, 53, was treated on the scene.
Strong said she was fixing a frozen dinner, and “I heard something go POP POP BOOM! The oven was on fire!” she said. I called the police and I took off running. I had to go back in though to get some pants. It was smoking really bad.”
Strong said she has lived in the apartment about seven years, and had told her landlord the oven was no good.
“Instead of putting a new stove in there, he kept replacing it with old stoves,” she said. “It just blew up. It’s not my fault it blew up.”
Maplewood Fire Chief Terry Merrell said the oven fire spread beyond the oven and caused a lot of damage in the kitchen and smoke damage throughout the apartment. He said one resident will be displaced and they’re looking into the habitability of the adjoining apartments.
“We got to it really quick and confined the fire damage to the room of origin,” Merrell said.
Doug, the fire was on Lyndover, not Lohmeyer.
Thanks, I caught that – now in both spots.