Lesson Of The Day: Do Not Crank Oven Heat To Keep Warm, Like These El Monte Residents, Unless You Want To Burn Down Your Apartment Building

Another day, another oven fire

It's a pretty adorable thought: Turn the oven on high and gather around for some po'-boy fingertip warming and Christmas carols. Maybe you could even break out the chesnuts/marshmallows for a stovetop burner BBQ.

On the other hand, it's not really worth almost burning down your apartment and the apartments of 30 neighboring residents, like some El Monte folks with a super bright idear for making it through the cold L.A. winter did last night.

Around 2 a.m., L.A. County firefighters received a call...

... reporting a fire on the 2700 block of Cogswell Road. They worked quickly, extinguishing the flames by 2:30 a.m. -- but not before hot, smoky conditions forced 30 residents, including families with children, to evacuate the building in the dead of the night.

Everyone's OK and everything, but we're thinking them clever fire-starters are in for the type of glares that could kill a small elf in the elevator this holiday season. We know it's been cold, guys, but you still live in Los Angeles. You weren't going to freeze to death.

Though we're sure those 30 neighbors you displaced this morning did, standing out in the miserable El Monte wee hours...

With reporting from City News Service