I was trying to sterilise my 3mo’s bottles. Then I set the house on fire

“When I came out to the kitchen, it was filled with smoke. I’d made a perfect little home set for an explosion,” recalls the Adelaide mum, Rachel. 

Rachel accidentally fell asleep while her baby's bottles were sterilising on the stove. Source: Supplied

It had been three months since Rachel had given birth to her son, Arlo. 

As a solo mum by choice, she was doing everything independently and struggling to keep up. 

While many people were coming to visit her newborn, they were more focused on giving the baby cuddles, leaving the Adelaide mum alone to do the hard stuff. 

To make matters worse, her son wasn’t doing well with breastfeeding, so naturally she turned to a bottle to feed him.

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Mum “forgot” about bottles on the stove and had a nap

Taking advice from a friend, the Adelaide-based teacher was told it was easier and cheaper to use a pot on the stove to sterilise the bottle parts.

Her mum kindly passed down an heirloom pot that was used for generations for this exact reason. 

Rachel hadn’t cooked for three months, so the idea of using the stove again was a little daunting. 

“I didn’t really know what I was doing,” Rachel told Kidspot. “I put it on, went to put my son down in the afternoon, and I just forgot about it.” 

“I was inexperienced in both motherhood and sterilising bottles, and I was trying to do something my mum did with two adults in the house.”

Living alone, she put the bottles in the pot and left the room, shutting the door behind her and the rooms in the house to “keep the sunlight out of the kitchen.” 

Soon after closing the door, she fell asleep from exhaustion. Half an hour later, she was woken by her son’s Owlet sock, which started sounding an alarm; his oxygen was dangerously low. 

Looking around, she saw smoke billowing from under the door. However, the fire alarm hadn’t made a peep, prompting her to think it was a “false alarm.” 

“...but when I came out to the kitchen, it was filled with smoke,” she said. “I’d made a perfect little home set for an explosion, but I didn’t think of that at the time.” 

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Rachel accidentally fell asleep while her baby's bottles were sterilising on the stove. Source: Supplied

“It didn’t occur to me people died of smoke inhalation, not from the fire”

Grabbing her phone, she filmed the smoke-filled kitchen and walked to the pot to “show mum how stupid I am.” 

“I still didn’t think it was serious,” she told Kidspot. “It didn’t occur to me at the time people died of smoke inhalation, not from the fire.” 

She was “literally walking through a minefield” in the hazy kitchen towards the pot, which was smoking and bubbling from the boiling water. 

“I was then so tired that I forgot all commonsense and blew on the pot,” she said, still recording the scene on her phone.

In a flash, the pot ignited, and the ceiling was engulfed in flames, fire flicking up towards the cupboards, which were filled with flammable foods. 

Panicked, she ran over to her neighbour Evan for help.

Months earlier, she had made fun of him for having a fire blanket and extinguisher in his home. But now the joke was over; she needed help more than ever. 

Thankfully, he had just returned from work and answered the door. “He came running over with [the blanket and extinguisher],” she told Kidspot. “He put the lid back on the pot, which extinguished the fire, then used the blanket to smack the cupboards and ceiling.”

All the while, Rachel’s son was still sleeping in another room. Evan demanded to know where her baby was, but Rachel told her neighbour he was fast asleep. 

Evan rushed into the bedroom and whisked the baby outside for fresh air. Amid her sleep deprivation, all Rachel could think was about her baby - was he still asleep? 

“I got the pram out to try to keep him asleep, and that was my priority the whole way through, even with a kitchen on fire,” she said. 

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Thankfully no one was hurt during the scary incident. Source: Supplied

“It only takes three minutes for a fire to take hold in your home”

Looking back, Rachel realised how dangerous her lack of sleep was and how easily things could have turned fatal. 

“People talk about sleep deprivation, but not necessarily the consequences,” Rachel told Kidspot. “I fell asleep that day from sheer exhaustion, but you can’t always do that; you’ve still got to be a parent.” 

And it’s not just Rachel who has experienced this terrifying and simple mistake. According to a study from Brooks Australia, one in two Australian parents have left cooking on the stove unattended, and 40 per cent have left an electrical appliance on.

“It only takes three minutes for a fire to take hold in your home and when you’re asleep, you will not smell smoke - in fact, it will put you into a deeper sleep,” said Cathy Brand, CEO of Brooks Australia. 

Following the terrifying experience, Rachel switched off the gas at the wall, not trusting herself to cook anything in the near future. She’s also installed another fire alarm and a fire blanket.

“I knew I didn’t have the capacity to look after my baby and be responsive enough,” she admitted.

“When you’re so sleep-deprived, you just don’t have the instincts. My only instinct was to keep the baby asleep.”

Originally published as I was trying to sterilise my 3mo’s bottles. Then I set the house on fire